Introduction
Promoting Integrated Holistic Assessment
Current policy in health and social care emphasizes the importance of comprehensive assessment of people’s needs in order to adequately determine and deliver the most appropriate care and services. With this in mind, the DHSSPS in Northern Ireland has begun the process of developing a single comprehensive assessment process. The principle product of this work will be a single tool for assessing the health and social care needs of older people but the learning and outcomes arising from this project could also inform further projects to apply common principles to the assessment of needs amongst other groups.
Existing evidence suggests that many older people experience a wide range of assessment approaches by a variety of different health and social care professionals. These multiple and often disconnected assessments, not all of which are validated, fail to capture a complete picture of the older person and their care needs. Older people, their carers and those who advocate on their behalf have for a long-time called for a less bureaucratic, better co-ordinated and managed approach to the assessment of care needs; service delivery and review. It is precisely with this intention in mind that this project has been established. The aims of the project are to:
- examine current assessment models;
- develop, test and revise a model for a single assessment tool; and
- prepare for implementation of the tool across Northern Ireland.
The focus during this project is on the creation of an assessment procedure, including screening triggers for specialist assessment; a summary of need; and an outline care plan for care management (screening, assessment, care plan service delivery and review) purposes. The assessment tool will be designed to gather the information necessary to plan home care services for people with complex needs so as to enable them to continue living at home, with appropriate home care support, or to make a decision regarding the need for nursing or residential home care.
This project is about developing a mechanism to promote responsive and integrated services in line with the Government’s ‘reform agenda’. The single assessment tool will address all of the Government’s Citizen Tests (consumer, taxpayer and user) by:
- focusing on users, carers and families;
- ensuring that the scale and depth of assessment is kept in proportion to the older persons’ needs;
- offering a framework for best practice in working with older people;
- promoting independent living among older people through prevention of deterioration and managing crises;
- ensuring that services remain appropriate to needs;
- flagging up potential health or social problems beyond the immediate problem that may have an impact on the life expectancy and quality of the individual being assessed;
- facilitating co-operation and information sharing among health and social services professionals;
- ensuring best use of care resources through effective and efficient assessment processes;
- incorporating respect and understanding for cultural differences as part of the assessment process;
- supporting equity in standards of care provided;
- providing information that is standardized across Northern Ireland for monitoring needs and strategic planning.