During the past decade, the movement to empower consumers in all areas of social work practice
has been joined by the growing recognition of the importance of the consumer's perspective in
assessing and monitoring health and social services. An increasing number of social work
practitioners and researchers have called for greater consumer involvement in assessing the
quality of services related to the long-term care needs of older adults. This article presents an
overview of strategies and approaches that social workers can use to measure the satisfaction
of older consumers with long-term care services. Specific issues in the design of satisfaction
instruments are discussed in detail. The article concludes by arguing that these issues, although
technical in nature, must be addressed in social work research if the professton's claim of concern
for consumer empowerment is to be realized.
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