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

Assessment DomainsThe assessment domains will cover the following:• users' perspective• clinical background• disease prevention• personal care and physical well-being• senses• mental health• relationships and involvement• safety• immediate environment and resources.Critical IssuesThe critical issues that we have to address in developing an assessment approach are as follows:• how do we define a need? For example, do we define needs in terms of ability or/and disability?• is expectation synonymous with age? In other words, is it acceptable to have decreasingexpectations of mobility for an 85 year old person than a 65 year old?• how will we respond to people who need more or less personal attention? For example, are wesaying that if you need a lot of personal care, you have a greater need than an older person livingalone but able to get around and manage many of the activities of daily living but who is sociallyisolated and lonely.• where resource deficits impact on the quality of life, how will we measure this?• is our Intervention responsive and are needs met or unmet as a consequence of it?_f----------------------------------Getting ThereIn the NEHB, we have a number of different assessment tools in use in various settings. We arecurrently evaluating those as a prelude to developing a standardised approach. We also need toidentify and develop the concept of key worker with overall responsibility for ensuring the completionof assessment and the mobilisation of an appropriate service response. Central to the success cif thisapproach is the development of appropriate and integrated care pathways, monitoring andevaluation criteria, referral and care protocols. Finally, our belief is that a commitment to ongoingchange management must underpin the process of developing a standardised approach toassessment. In the absence of that commitment, the process will flounder.Conference Proceedings