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Assessing satisfaction with social care services among black and minority ethnic and white British carers of stroke survivors in England

Assessing satisfaction with social care services among black and minority ethnic and white British carers of stroke survivors in England
Assessing satisfaction with social care services among black and minority ethnic and white British carers of stroke survivors in England
Overall satisfaction levels with social care are usually high but lower levels have been reported among black and minority ethnic (BME) service users in England. Reasons for this are poorly understood. This qualitative study therefore explored satisfaction with services among informal carer participants from five different ethnic groups. Fifty-seven carers (black Caribbean, black African, Asian Indian, Asian Pakistani and white British) were recruited from voluntary sector organisations and a local hospital in England, and took part in semi-structured interviews using cognitive interviewing and the critical incident technique. Interviews took place from summer 2013 to spring 2014. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed that participants often struggled to identify specific ‘incidents’, especially satisfactory ones. When describing satisfactory services, participants talked mostly about specific individuals and relationships. Unsatisfactory experiences centred on services overall. When rating services using cognitive interviewing, explicit comparisons with expectations or experiences with other services were common. Highest satisfaction ratings tended to be justified by positive personal characteristics among practitioners, trust and relationships. Lower level ratings were mostly explained by inconsistency in services, insufficient or poor care. Lowest level ratings were rare. Overall, few differences between ethnic groups were identified, although white British participants rated services higher overall giving more top ratings. White British participants also frequently took a more overall view of services, highlighting some concerns but still giving top ratings, while South Asian carers in particular focused on negative aspects of services. Together these methods provide insight into what participants mean by satisfactory and unsatisfactory services. Cognitive interviewing was more challenging for some BME participants, possibly a reflection of the meaningfulness of the concept of service satisfaction to them. Future research should include comparisons between BME and white participants’ understanding of the most positive parts of satisfaction scales and should focus on dissatisfied participants.
0966-0410
1-10
Greenwood, Nan
2f837458-acac-4c95-b401-0c98c8d306cc
Holley, Jess
d975fdc9-2708-4917-88c8-d7de034b80b4
Ellmers, Theresa
27dfe49b-7471-4c65-8078-c28571855af9
Bowling, Ann
796ca209-687f-4079-8a40-572076251936
Cloud, Geoffrey
74d24097-7477-42c7-9a00-f187c653c9f2
Greenwood, Nan
2f837458-acac-4c95-b401-0c98c8d306cc
Holley, Jess
d975fdc9-2708-4917-88c8-d7de034b80b4
Ellmers, Theresa
27dfe49b-7471-4c65-8078-c28571855af9
Bowling, Ann
796ca209-687f-4079-8a40-572076251936
Cloud, Geoffrey
74d24097-7477-42c7-9a00-f187c653c9f2

Greenwood, Nan, Holley, Jess, Ellmers, Theresa, Bowling, Ann and Cloud, Geoffrey (2015) Assessing satisfaction with social care services among black and minority ethnic and white British carers of stroke survivors in England. Health & Social Care in the Community, 1-10. (doi:10.1111/hsc.12298).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Overall satisfaction levels with social care are usually high but lower levels have been reported among black and minority ethnic (BME) service users in England. Reasons for this are poorly understood. This qualitative study therefore explored satisfaction with services among informal carer participants from five different ethnic groups. Fifty-seven carers (black Caribbean, black African, Asian Indian, Asian Pakistani and white British) were recruited from voluntary sector organisations and a local hospital in England, and took part in semi-structured interviews using cognitive interviewing and the critical incident technique. Interviews took place from summer 2013 to spring 2014. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed that participants often struggled to identify specific ‘incidents’, especially satisfactory ones. When describing satisfactory services, participants talked mostly about specific individuals and relationships. Unsatisfactory experiences centred on services overall. When rating services using cognitive interviewing, explicit comparisons with expectations or experiences with other services were common. Highest satisfaction ratings tended to be justified by positive personal characteristics among practitioners, trust and relationships. Lower level ratings were mostly explained by inconsistency in services, insufficient or poor care. Lowest level ratings were rare. Overall, few differences between ethnic groups were identified, although white British participants rated services higher overall giving more top ratings. White British participants also frequently took a more overall view of services, highlighting some concerns but still giving top ratings, while South Asian carers in particular focused on negative aspects of services. Together these methods provide insight into what participants mean by satisfactory and unsatisfactory services. Cognitive interviewing was more challenging for some BME participants, possibly a reflection of the meaningfulness of the concept of service satisfaction to them. Future research should include comparisons between BME and white participants’ understanding of the most positive parts of satisfaction scales and should focus on dissatisfied participants.

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Accepted/In Press date: 13 September 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 October 2015
Organisations: Faculty of Health Sciences

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Local EPrints ID: 399163
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/399163
ISSN: 0966-0410
PURE UUID: 17d45e83-334c-48a1-833e-ff856df06795

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Date deposited: 17 Aug 2016 13:49
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 01:46

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Contributors

Author: Nan Greenwood
Author: Jess Holley
Author: Theresa Ellmers
Author: Ann Bowling
Author: Geoffrey Cloud

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