Homemaker services provide assistance to persons with difficulty performing one or more Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), including preparing meals, traveling outside the home to shop for personal items or obtain needed services, managing money, using the telephone, doing housework, or remembering to take medication. Homemaker services comprise an important part of a full spectrum of home and community-based services, providing viable alternatives to institutional care. According to the most recent AoA figures, covering the 2003 Federal Fiscal Year, the State and Area Agency on Aging network spent $109.5 million from all funding sources for homemaker services.
 
Survey Content and Results
 
The Homemaker questionnaire covered the following topical areas:

• Home Care Satisfaction Measure (HCSM, Developed by Scott Miyake Geron, Boston University)*
• Service quality
• Demographic characteristics
• Social functioning (using questions from the Longitudinal Study of Aging II)*
• Emotional well being (using questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System)*
• Physical functioning (using Activity and Instrumental Activity of Daily Living Limitations)*