Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service II (Projects aiming to enhance clinical safety and outcomes, clinical governance / risk management)
Proposed Topic (Second preferred): :
HA Young Investigators Session (Projects to be presented by HA staff who had joined HA for 10 years or less)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Li MCC(1), Chan YLD(1), Chan SMF(1), Chan YHJ(1), Ng PKP(1), Wong TYA(1), Ngai KCS(1), Leung CYE(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Kowloon Hospital
Introduction :
Literature reviews suggested severe mental illness (SMI) is associated with parenting difficulty and prone to affect responsive parenting on different functional levels. The involved patients with SMI will further deteriorate in their mental health from this parenting relationship leading to family tragedies. One of the core roles of occupational therapists (OTs) is to assess those patients’ child care ability and provide advice for clinical team to arrange rehabilitation and support service. However, there is limited guideline for child care assessment for patients with mental illness (PMIs) and report writing among OTs in local psychiatric settings. Therefore, developing a child care assessment manual for OTs is deemed necessary.
Objectives :
To (1) develop and facilitate application of the child care assessment manual; (2) align clinical standard in child care assessment; and (3) standardize report writing format after assessment.
Methodology :
The child care assessment manual referencing to Parenting Competency Model and Camberwell Assessment of Need for Mothers respectively was developed which consisted of assessment frameworks for PMIs and children of different ages, and samples of report writing format. The core domains assessed included client’s general capacity, daily care, health care, safety awareness, schooling, illness management, social support and lifestyle. Recommendation was guided after assessment. A briefing session was conducted to seven OTs in psychiatric in-patient team in Kowloon Hospital before application and their feedback was collected by a satisfaction survey afterwards. The results were analyzed in descriptive statistics.
Result & Outcome :
All seven OTs had applied the manual and indicated that it was easy to understand and use, and very helpful to them in a) clearly focusing on core domains of child care assessment, b) conducting assessment and writing report in an organized and comprehensive way, and c) enhancing quality in clinical assessment and report writing. 71.4%, 57.1% and 85.7% of them stated that it was very helpful to guide them to make clinical judgment, give recommendations and write report with enhanced efficiency respectively. 100% of them were willing to apply the manual in future.
To conclude, the child care assessment manual is helpful to the involved OTs. Further enhancement of the manual in content of providing guided questions, information of follow-up service and resources and the flow for clinical judgment is suggested. This pilot paths the way for further application and data collections to correlate the assessment scales with triage of child care competence of the PMIs in community.
