本研究論文的主要內容源自宜蘭縣政府社會局於民國八十八年委託東海大學社會工作學系所執行之專案研究--宜蘭縣老人福利產業總體規劃；以養護機構為核心議題進行空間分析。本文中主要介紹了政策與措施之規劃研究執行模式，並運用上述之研究為實例，輔以說明此類研究的進行依據和過程方法，以及所獲得之部分研究結果。老年人居住安養需求的滿足，有賴政府與民間相關部門的共同合作，在策劃此一需求的因應過程中，研究者運用了各種不同的需求評量技術，包括社會指標法、文獻資料插補法、使用率調查法等，搭配地域空間分析方法，作為推估宜蘭縣老年人在居住安養需求與服務供給之間的落差狀況，藉此研究分析之結果，期使政府部門對縣內老年人之居住安養服務措施在規劃上有實証的依據，同時也能讓民間提供相關產業服務之業者瞭解市場之供需情況，從落實社會福利社區化的理念出發，共同致力於滿足老年人在晚年階段之居住安養需求。 The main purpose of this paper is to introduce research methods that can be used in the planning of living arrangement for the elderly at a County level. This paper summarizes a research project which was conducted by an interdisciplinary research team consisted of professional social workers， architects， and government officials to assess the needs for elderly congregate housing and nursing home services in the I-Lan County， Taiwan. Several need assessment techniques such as social index， survey of service availability and current occupancy rates， spatial analysis， and data extrapolation were used to identify gaps between service needs and supply. The result of this study showed a diverse need at 12 different communities， and the initial conclusion could lead to a better planning of services in the near future.
