What Does A Care Needs Assessment Involve?

Finding the most suitable way to take care of someone’s needs will typically involve a care needs assessment.

If someone feels like they or someone they know needs help with day-to-day tasks that are essential to a healthy and fulfilling life, then help is available for them through a care worker agency or in a residential home.

So what is a care needs assessment?

Finding the most suitable way to take care of someone’s needs will typically involve a care needs assessment, a free test to determine the kinds of support packages that are available, suitable and could be applied for.

They are traditionally done as either telephone assessments or face-to-face, although online assessments are also available, with each local council having a different system for managing the people in their system.

They take an hour on average, depending on the complexity of needs, and will explore what someone is capable of doing on their own, what they may need help with, what eligible needs they have and what support is available to help with this.

What does a care needs assessment involve?

Typically, the assessment is looking to answer three key questions about a person’s needs.

• Does a physical health or mental health condition leave someone with unmet care and support needs?
• Are there at least two goals or outcomes that are left unfulfilled as the rest of these care and support needs?
• Does this lack have a significant impact on the person’s well-being?

Care and support needs are a somewhat broad category and can range from domiciliary care to help someone with basic tasks to providing lunch clubs or day centres to help a person be part of a community and ensure their social support needs are met.

The goals and outcomes can be broad but include basic needs such as preparing food, personal hygiene, dressing and general safety, as well as being part of society, working and/or taking education opportunities.

It must also be noted that “left unfulfilled” does not necessarily mean being completely unable to complete a task, but that it either requires help, takes longer than it should, is painful or distressing to achieve, or runs the risk of causing harm.