Eligibility assessment

After the eligibility criteria have been determined, tools should be developed for evaluating and assessing eligibility. To that end, the following questions should be addressed:

· Will a structured assessment tool be established? If so, will this tool be used nationally, or will different tools be used for each district?

· Who will be responsible for developing the assessment tool?

· How will this assessment tool be used?

· How will the objectivity of the assessment tool be assured? That is, how will the process of assessment be transparent, egalitarian and consistent?

· Who will be responsible for administering this assessment tool? That is, will a community health or social service professional do the assessment or will a person or team from an outside agency be charged with this responsibility?

· How will the level of care and support be measured? That is, how will the assessor identify the number of hours required for the CHBC service? Will the number of hours depend on the severity of the illness or on the needs of the caregiver and ill person?

· How will the type of care and support be assessed? That is, who will identify the type of care and support required?

Assessment should be uniform and consistent. That is, the process of assessment should be transparent, objective, fair and consistently applied. Although the assessment tool could be adapted to reflect local differences, the main focus of assessment should therefore be consistent across CHBC programmes.