What Are The Main Outcomes Of Home Care That Are Assessed?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to effective home care, and the best care outcomes are the result of a person-centred approach that starts with outcomes and works backwards to find the right care solution to reach those outcomes.

This is the typical basis behind a care needs assessment; an occupational therapist or social worker will look at care outcomes and how well a person can do them without help. 

If they cannot complete an outcome safely, without taking a significant amount of time, without causing themselves a lot of pain, mental anguish, anxiety or stress, then the fact that it can technically be done is discounted.

If at least two care outcomes cannot be achieved due to a physical or mental condition and this has an effect on a person’s well-being, they will meet the criteria for care.

Ten main care outcomes are considered, which can be grouped into four main categories.

The first is personal care needs, particularly those that are required for a healthy life and interactions with others. These include maintaining nutrition, personal hygiene, taking care of toiletry needs and wearing clothing appropriate for any given occasion.

After this, there are the needs of the home environment. People need to be able to maintain a home that can be lived in, which involves cleaning, tidying, avoiding large amounts of clutter and being able to use everything in the home safely.

Alongside these are social needs and responsibilities. These include the ability to maintain personal and familial relationships, being able to care for a child, being part of employment, education or training, and using local community facilities such as public transport and recreation.

It is easy to think of home care as synonymous purely with personal care, but there is so much that is important to a happy, healthy and fulfilling life, and social care aims to help people meet these needs.