As people get older and more vulnerable, there is an increasing requirement for more social and health related services. These may be on a permanent or episodic basis. Central government stipulate that an assessment should be made within 4 weeks of a request for help or a specific service. From the moment an assessment is deemed necessary, there is an acceptance of responsibility by health or social services; taking all the necessary precautions to avert any crisis in this interim period is crucial.

Following the acceptance of responsibility to perform an assessment, there is a requirement to:

• Show the family and local community that immediate action is being taken
• Take some precautions to provide the vulnerable person with a way to call for help if necessary thereby reducing culpability
• Provide the occupational therapists with the required lifestyle information of the client to enable an objective assessment

In most situations, occupational therapists assess people to determine the appropriate level of services. These assessments suffer from their subjective nature taking into account the person’s condition only on the day of assessment. A particularly good night’s sleep or poor night’s sleep skewing the assessment significantly. The family members can also have vested interests in the wellness of the client influencing the particular care packages that they wish provisioned.

As the older population increases in numbers, the demands upon the assessment teams will continue to increase. Failure to meet the 4 week government assessment target will have a negative impact on service ratings.
Over assess a person’s vulnerability and scarce and costly services will be unnecessary commissioned; under assess and there is increased likelihood of greater risks which can lead to accidents, hospitalisations and early residential care.

There is a requirement to give Occupational Therapists the tools to perform more objective assessments. Speed and accuracy would be derived from having a picture of a person’s overall wellness prior to the assessment day. This should take into account the lifestyle of the client from the day of first contact or referral. Providing temporary access to a telecare response service would reduce the culpability from a delayed assessment as well as providing a rapid response in the event of a crisis.