Is the Morriston Occupational Therapy Outcome Measure (MOTOM) an appropriate tool for reablement services?

Background

This study explored whether the MOTOM is an appropriate outcome measure for reablement services.

Reablement is defined by the Department of Health and Social Care (2022) as “services that help people live independently, provided in the person’s own home by a team of mainly social care professionals.” The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), explain what reablement should consist of through the Intermediate Care Including Reablement guidelines. However, legislation does not dictate how local authorities should deliver this. It is important to consider whether the outcome measures chosen in services could restrict or facilitate the delivery of guidelines in practice.

Through a literature search, it has become apparent that different local authorities utilise different outcome measures in reablement services. Whitehead et al (2016) stated that ‘the National Audit for Intermediate Care has also previously reported much debate when agreeing which outcome measure to use for home-based intermediate care and reablement services.’

The MOTOM was created in 1993 and was designed to facilitate discharges from hospital to home. The MOTOM was selected to be used for the reablement team in Norfolk. However, the MOTOM’s use in a community context or within local authorities has not yet been explored, this research hopes to achieve this.

To answer this research question, service providers who work from, write and approve the assessment will be consulted. Through a community of practice, two questionnaires have been designed for the service providers using the MOTOM to explore whether they feel this is appropriate for reablement services and adheres to the guidelines of how this should be delivered.

Project Aims

This project aimed

1. To assess the suitability of the MOTOM in a community setting.
2. To explore if reablement staff feel the MOTOM is an effective way to assess reablement.
3. To investigate whether the MOTOM adheres to legislation and guidelines of how reablement should be delivered.

Project Activity

A community of practice were formed which consisted of both professionals who have an interest in the topic and individuals who have had experience of occupational therapy services. The team created two questionnaires to issue to service providers working in reablement and using the MOTOM. The team prepared an ethical application that was submitted to the University of Hertfordshire. The research lead also met with the Head of Service at Norfolk County Council who provided their endorsement on this project.

Anticipated Impact

The MOTOM has been used in Norfolk County Council's reablement service since 2021. So far, the research team have not been able to identify if any other local authorities are using this outcome measure within this context. It was hoped that the research will show if this is a good outcome measure to use in this area of practice and the reasons why or why not this is. This information will be provided to Norfolk County Council so they can make any changes if they are required. However, the wider aim is to publish this information and contribute to an evidence-base to inform other local authorities about what outcome measures are best used in reablement services.

Who was involved?

Community of Practice
Sophie Tooke, Research Lead
Tamsin Leah, Research Associate
Joanna Ward, Research Associate
Rebecca Harris, Research Associate
Jeremy Dearling, Expert by Experience
Lynda Hesketh, Expert by Experience

Supervisor
Julia Warrener

Institution
University of Hertfordshire (as part of the Social Care Research in Practice Teams (SCRiPT) project).

Contact

Sophie Tooke

Research in Practice Lead/ PI

University of Hertfordshire

This project is part of the SCRiPT study, click here to read more about SCRiPT