Assessment of Older People's Health and Social Care Needs and ...

.Final Session: Panel DiscussionThree speaKers made brief inputs to trigger an exchange of views with conference participants on thetheme of the final session, 'The Way Forward'.Or Finbarr Corkery highlighted the need to maintain a balance between the work of generalistsand specialists in the health system. He was opposed to the development of a centralised assessmentframework, believing that the need is to achieve coherence at the local level, but to maintain thekind of flexibility that is responsive to local needs. He proposed the development of a mechanism toshare information about the range of practice in assessment that had been presented at theconference.Jimmy Ouggan also advocated the establishment of a central point for the dissemination ofinformation about assessment. Posing the question, 'what is it we want to move on to 7', hesuggested that there was a need to develop a national approach to assessment and that the NationalCouncil might have a role in facilitating this development. He noted the concerns expressed at theconference that assessments may lead to raised expectations in circumstances where there are gapsand shortcomings in the system. His view was that assessments yield necessary information aboutexisting levels of need, both met and unmet, in the older population. This information could supportthe case for increased resource allocation for older people.Mary McOermott recommended the routine screening of older people who are well. She emphasisedthe need for the health services to be able to respond to needs identified through the screening andassessment of older people. She said that a common assessment process for admission of olderpeople to residential care is needed. In terms of the way forward on assessment, she expressed theview that a process is needed to help people clarify where they want to go and how they want to getthere. She felt that the establishment of a national steering committee could be the way to approachthis process.Conference Proceedings" _