Routine outcome measures: which ones are for you?
10 Dec 2015
The October Lower South West Community of Practice meeting focused on a topic gaining increasing interest within the mental health sector, routine outcome measures.
Outcome measures are a set of tools or instruments used to record the changes experienced by a client of a particular service, or participants in a certain project. Outcome measures may capture movement on a client’s recovery journey or changes in the reported well being of participants.
Outcome measures can provide valuable data to improve services, capture the voices of stakeholders, validate work, and assist as a clinical tool. In addition, outcome measures can help demonstrate impact and achievements to funding bodies.
A participant from a community-managed organisation in Busselton appreciated WAAMH's Community of Practice notes on outcome measures provided in the meeting. "Implementing outcome measures was previously overwhelming, but the simple steps provided in the meeting were helpful and will enable me to get started", she said.
Many organisations, including those active in the mental health sector, struggle with the adoption and implementation of outcome measures. Community of Practice Facilitator, Jane Forward, outlined three steps to help organisations implement outcome measures more effectively at the recent Lower South West meeting;
- Start at the end and work backwards, and determine the plan for the information once it is collected. Understanding the purpose of the data will ensure the right information is collected.
- Work out how people will be supported to do things differently. Assess the organisation's current capacity and capability, and address any gaps, such as;
- Is there someone in the organisation with the time and skills to input data?
- Is the current data system adequate?
- Are new protocols needed?
- Do staff need further training?
- Are more resources needed to measure outcomes effectively?
- Pick the measure which is right for the organisation. Fortunately, most of the hard work has been done already with a number of extensive, free or low cost reviews of outcome measurement tools available online.