I think typically what would happen is that one would do studies on issues of relevance for future decision-making. They would be an input into policy formulation, so you may not be fully aware of a particular circumstance. If you do good targeted research, you can get relevant information about that, and depending on what that is, it may point out certain policy choices.
With regard to the kind of research we've done and are doing in this project, we are looking at levels of satisfaction as well as cost. This is not simply a cost study; we are also looking at contributions made by caregivers and the satisfaction with services.
What we find is that for people with similar levels of care need, home care is typically—not always, but on average—a lower-cost alternative. So in fact people usually prefer to remain at home. What this evidence would say is that if people prefer to remain at home, if they can get an equivalent level of care to meet their needs that they're satisfied with, then that might be an option for policy-makers to consider in terms of making greater investments in home care rather than in residential care.
That said, one must continue to recognize the importance of residential care for people who need that kind of service. So typically one would hope that the kind of data that is collected would in fact lead to improvements and solutions.