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DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS TO MEASURE SERVICE USER AND CARER SATISFACTION WITH SINGLE SHARED ASSESSMENT
Service users' guidelines for community care assessors
Introduction
These guidelines on what makes assessments work well were drawn up by service users as a starting point for designing a monitoring scheme for Single Shared Assessment.
They are expressed in the first person because people wanted them to speak directly and have an impact.
What is important to service users falls into 4 main areas:
Preparation for the assessment meeting
The way the meeting is conducted including the relationship that develops with the Assessor
The questions that are asked
What happens as a result of the assessment: what they are offered, and (later) what is delivered to them
The guidelines are set out under these 4 key areas.
How you can help us feel prepared
Assessments are very important to us and everyone needs to be aware of this. We need to be able to prepare beforehand, to get clear about what we want to say and how we will say it. We may want to have a family member, an advocate, or other person of our choice to help with this.
The kind of information we need before the first visit
what the assessment is
what it means for us
what we will be asked about
what our rights are about assessments and services
what may be available to us
how to get the best results for us out of the assessment
organisations that may support us, especially those of us who
have no appropriate person available from our own networks
the name and job title of the assessor
your roles and responsibilities as assessor
we may want someone of our choice to be with us during our
assessment. It should be clear in the information we receive that this
is encouraged and acceptable.
us so that we are as comfortable as possible
How you conduct the meeting
We need to build a relationship and trust together. We are sharing very personal information. You can help us to make this meeting work well for us by remembering these points:
you are a visitor in our house
show your ID
don't use jargon.
ask where it would be best for you to sit so the seating arrangement is right for all of us.
if this is the first time we've met, the first few moments are all important. Your body language, the words you use, how you act, how you talk, whether you listen and ask, or talk at us, all these things count.
eye contact is vital.
don't assume you can use first names. Ask us how we would like to be addressed.
talk person to person.
don't talk as if we are the problem.
you need to prepare for meeting us and know at least the main things about our situation and about our communication needs.
it is your responsibility to make sure that you are communicating in the right way for each of us
we need to know what information about us may be shared, who with and why.
be clear that this is not a test.
The questions you ask
How you get information from us is critical. We need to work together on the assessment and find solutions together. Please remember:
ask us to tell you in our own way what our hopes and goals are, what help we need, what our situation is, what our priorities are. Ask us to tell you ourselves.
if a carer is present, speak to us, don't ask the carer questions we can answer for ourselves.
tell us what services might be available to us.
if there is a form to be filled in, it would be best to do this together, not you, with the form, asking the questions.
some people might want to fill in the form themselves.
long forms can be difficult and are sometimes impossible. Find out what suits each person.
more than one visit may be needed
the forms should not
be
impersonal
The forms would help to make assessments better if they were designed to support empowerment and equality
it may be better to get some of the information, with our permission, from other people, e.g. the GP, especially if it's embarrassing information.
if you have to ask a question that isn't relevant to us please explain why you are asking.
we understand that it is important to record unmet needs but resources (or lack of resources) are not our problem, they are yours.
What happens as a result of the assessment
We need to have a good understanding of what will happen next. Please remember these points:
go over what has been written down with us and confirm that we have a shared understanding of what it means.
explain what signing the assessment form means and what the possible consequences of not signing may be. It is our choice to refuse to sign if there is anything we do not agree with. Any disagreements should be noted and all points of view recorded.
give us a copy of our assessment.
explain how decisions are made about the services that we may receive as a result of the assessment.
explain what will happen next.
ensure we know who to contact and who will be arranging our services.
ensure we have contact details and a plan of action that we can refer to.
many of us may find all the information difficult to take in and come to decisions about - especially if we are experiencing a sudden adverse change in our lives. It may help to get information about support organisations which will help us to think things through or consider with us if we have family or friends who will help with this
.
Members of local development groups working with Infusion Co-op November 03 - January 04
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