Impact of occupational therapy in an integrated adult social care service: Audit of Therapy Outcome Measure Findings

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon J. Davenport
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Outcome Measure ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Sampling Bias ◽  
Therapy Outcome ◽  
Social Care Service ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health And Social Care

PurposeHealth and social care services should demonstrate the quality of their interventions for commissioners, patients and carers, plus it is a requirement for occupational therapists to measure and record outcomes. Use of the “Therapy Outcome Measure” (TOMs) standardised tool was implemented by an occupational therapy adult social care service to demonstrate outcomes from April 2020, following integration to a community NHS Trust.Design/methodology/approachThe aim was to demonstrate occupational therapy outcomes in adult social care through a local audit of the TOMs. The objective was to determine if clients improved following occupational therapy intervention in the four domains of impairment, activity, participation and wellbeing/carer wellbeing. 70 cases were purposively sampled over a 2-month timeframe, extracting data from the local electronic recording system.FindingsOccupational therapy in adult social care clearly makes an impact with their client group and carers. Evidence from the dataset demonstrates clinically significant change, as 93% of clients seen by adult social care occupational therapy staff showed an improvement in at least one TOMs domain during their whole episode of care. 79% of activity scores, 20% of participation scores and 50% of wellbeing scores improved following intervention. 79% of carer wellbeing scores improved following occupational therapy.Research limitations/implicationsThe audit did not collect data on uptake from the separate teams (equipment, housing, STAR and adult social care work) in occupational therapy adult social care. Potential sampling bias occurred as cases with completed scores only were purposively sampled. Sampling was not random which prevented data gathering on uptake of TOMs across the separate teams. Additionally, the audit results can only be applied to the setting from which the data was collected, so has limited external validity.Originality/valueThese novel findings illustrate the valuable and unique impact of occupational therapy in this adult social care setting. The integration of adult social care into an NHS Community Trust has supported the service to measure outcomes, by utilising the same standardised tool in use by allied health professions across the Trust.

Space, time and demographic change

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamish Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Care ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
Social Care Service ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Integration ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Geographical Perspective ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential value of applying spatial science and technology to the issue of care integration across what are the often fragmented domains of health and social care provision. The issue of focus for this purpose is population ageing because it challenges existing information and practice silos. Better integration, the author proposes, needs to adopt a geographic approach to deal with the challenges that population ageing present to health and social care as they currently function in many countries. Design/methodology/approach The approach utilised here explores the role that could be played by enhancing spatial perspectives in care integration. Spatial and temporal strategies need to be coordinated to produce systems of integrated care that are needed to meet the needs of growing numbers of older people. Findings The author’s premise is that, with some rare exceptions, geographies of care are needed to address important shifts in demography such as population ageing and their epidemiological consequences. The rising intersection between the ageing and disability concepts illustrates how the fluid nature of health and social care client groups will challenge existing systems and their presuppositions. Health and medical geography offer a theoretical and practical response to some of these emerging problems. Research limitations/implications This is a brief conceptual piece in favour of integrating geographic concepts and methods in the context of changing demography and the social, economic and service implications of such changes. It is limited in scope and a more detailed explanation would be required for a proof of concept. Practical implications Practically we know that all human services vary across space as do both healthcare and related social services and supports. Issues of quality and safety are numerous in these policy domains generally, with aged care evidencing a growing number of problems and challenges. Being able to inquire on significant challenges in health and social care through a spatial lens has the potential to provide another, highly practical, kind of evidence in this field of work. This lens is, the author contends, very poorly integrated into either health or social care at present. However, doing so would have a variety of useful outcomes for monitoring and intervening on real problems in care integration. An example could be “frequent flyers” in emergency departments as has been done in Camden, New Jersey through patient mapping. Social implications The author’s position in this paper is that the challenges we face in providing integrated care to ageing and increasingly disabled (including both physical and cognitive impairments) populations will only grow in the face of variable governmental responses and increasingly complex funding and service provider arrangements. Without a geographical perspective and the concepts and tools of spatial science the author does not see an adequate response emerging. The shift to community-based care for many groups, including the aged, means that location will become more important rather than less so. This is a societal concern of major proportions and the very concept of integrated care requires of us a geographical perspective. Originality/value This is a short but, the author believes, conceptually rich piece with a variety of potential practical implications for health and social care service provision. Issues of equity, quality, safety and even basic access can only grow as population ageing progresses and various forms of chronic disease and disability continue to grow. Knowing where the most affected people and their social and service connections are located will support better integration. And better integration may resolve some of the financial and related resource problems that are already evident but which can only continue to increase. In this context, the author suggests that the integrated care of the future needs to be geographically informed to be effective.

Community care reaches out for the mobile moment

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Social Care ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Community Services ◽  
Social Care Service ◽  
Long Term Conditions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Back Office ◽  
Mobile Working

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the quite extraordinary way the phenomena of mobile communication has gripped our society and the opportunities this provides for healthcare. Design/methodology/approach – It describes the ticking public health time bomb surrounding long term conditions and dementia and the need to radically overhaul how community services are delivered. It dissects the opportunities and challenges of providing a mobile health and social care service in the community and explores what a mobile moment means for these professionals. Findings – It stresses that the answer is NOT to simply provide an organisation’s IT back-office environment in the field and describes the concept of a dedicated organisation app platform tailored to meet this need. Originality/value – The paper concludes by reviewing recent evidence about the benefits and opportunities for health and social care organisations to embrace mobile working.

scholarly journals Covid-19: why we need a national health and social care service

BMJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. m1465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson M Pollock ◽  
Luke Clements ◽  
Louisa Harding-Edgar
Keyword(s):  
National Health ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Social Care Service ◽  
Health And Social Care

scholarly journals Social care mentorship and employee engagement in the transformation of the Social Care Workforce

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 267-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet McCray ◽  
Hazel Turner ◽  
Barbara Hall ◽  
Marie Price ◽  
Gill Constable
Keyword(s):  
Employee Engagement ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Social Care Service ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Development Framework

Purpose – This paper presents the findings of a small scale research project exploring mentorship programme participants experiences and learning about their managerial role in an adult social care service seeking to build management practice, resilience and well-being in the context of transformation. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of one public sector workforce development project is presented. The programme involved the use of an individual social care mentorship model and continuing professional development framework to support and engage 60 social care managers in the facilitation of workforce practice transformation. A small scale research study of 15 managers was undertaken. Participants provided a written reflective review and narrative of their individual experience and of learning. The narrative of a purposive sample of 15 managers was analysed using a work by Tamboukou and informed by a work byLabov and Waletzky as a guide. Findings – Thematic analysis of managers' reflective accounts, identified the adaption of coaching methods and the used of role modelling skills in the workplace. Emotional well being and resilience was maintained during the mentorship programme. Structural analysis emphasised sequences or messages in the narrative indicating manager's cooperation with the organisation in achieving its' transformational goals and gaining employee engagement. Research limitations/implications – This is a small scale study exploring one aspect of the project's goals. Practical implications – The project delivery and research findings will be of interest to other organisations considering the implementation of mentorship to support transformation and change. Originality/value – There are very few evaluations and research studies of social care mentorship in the literature and this paper and the case study presented provides interesting new insights into the process and its possible outcomes.

Multi-agency working and implications for care managers

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan Jasper ◽  
Mark Wilberforce ◽  
Hilde Verbeek ◽  
David J Challis
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Supervisory Support ◽  
Social Care Service ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose To examine the association between multi-agency working and psychosocial characteristics of work, practitioner time-use and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A comparison of practitioners working in multi-agency (health and social care) and single-agency (social care only) teams, using data from the 2008 evaluation of Individual Budgets pilots in England. Participants worked in care manager roles supporting adult social care service users, and comprised social workers and a smaller number of health professionals. Data was collected using a self-completed questionnaire. Findings Data were returned from 249 respondents (a 29 per cent response rate), with two-thirds working in single-agency teams. No significant differences were found between team type and job satisfaction. Respondents in multi-agency teams reported greater decision autonomy but poorer supervisory support than those in single-agency teams. The latter finding was robust to further exploration using regression to control for confounding factors. Research limitations/implications These data were not specifically collected for the study and response rates were relatively low due to organisational upheaval at the time of data collection, which may affect interpretation. Practical implications Government policy is dedicated to extending integrated forms of working, including multi-agency teamwork. This research suggests that such structures need careful planning for them to work effectively, with particular attention to supervision arrangements. Originality/value This research gives a systematic and objective exploration of the relationship between job characteristics, time-use and satisfaction of practitioners in single as compared to multi-agency teams.

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