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

Chairperson's Welcome andIntroductionDr Michael Loftus, Chairperson, National Council on Ageing and OlderPeopleIt is my great pleasure to join in the Cead Mile Failte to each and everyone of you to this, theNational Conference on the Assessment of Older People's Health and Social Care Needs andPreferences. Your presence in such numbers here this morning is proof, if proof were needed, of thecommitment of health and social care professionals to older people and to good practice in theirprovision of health and social services.Older people are a heterogeneous group with diverse needs. They often suffer from multiple interrelatedmedical, social, functional and environmental problems requiring the assistance of a numberof health and social care providers. Current health and social needs assessments are carried outusing a number of different assessment instruments in a wide range of service settings, dependingon the service that is being accessed by the older person. Due to the diversity of an older person'sneeds and preferences and the variety of professionals conducting assessments and the range ofsettings in which assessments take place, it can often be difficult to correlate the various elements ofthe assessment. This in turn makes it difficult to devise and deliver a plan of action to meet theneeds and preferences of an older person in a person-centred and holistic way.Right from the outset, I would like to state that we in the National Council on Ageing and OlderPeople do not pretend to know any more than others about the complexity of assessing olderpeople's health needs, much less how assessments should be conducted and co-ordinated. TheCouncil has organised the conference out of a conviction that it is important to provide a forum atnational level for all professionals engaged in assessing frail, ill or disabled older people's needs andin planning a co-ordinated service for them on the basis of the needs identified. It is therefore hopedthat this conference will provide an opportunity for an exchange of views on, and experiences of, oldage screening and assessment practices.While the Council is by no means expert in the field of old age assessment, some of its recent reportshave highlighted the necessity for a better system of identifying older people's needs and preferencesto ensure that services are delivered to a high standard and on an equitable basis. The Councilreport, A Framework for Quality in Long-Term Residential Care for Older People in Ireland,highlighted the necessity of identifying the needs of older people entering long-term care through acomprehensive assessment procedure in order to guarantee a high standard of care. This reportconcluded that it was important that a multi-disciplinary team should be involved in a thoroughevaluation of the health and social status of older people entering residential care.In relation to acute and community care, the HeSSOP study of 2001 recommended that a frameworkfor the multi-disciplinary assessment of older people be developed at a national level in order toensure fairer access to services, based on clear and universal guidelines of eligibility. The report, Careand Case Management for Older People, published in 2001, documented an unease expressed byConference Proceedings