Comparing Two Models Strength Based Models

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Assessment

We use Strengths Assessment which is a tool to assist the patient explore in a holistic, positive way his or her strengths, resources and aspirations to identify personal strengths and natural abilities, to help access resources in the community that will assist in the completion of recovery-focused goals. The strengths assessment will probe into the different areas of a person’s life, such as daily living, financial, social, spiritual and recreational themes. It will help to identify and clarify what is going on right now, what has happened in the past with regards to these different themes, and how to create a vision for the future.

Planning

The assessment will help to identify specific goals. Using these we will draw up a Personal Plan with the person we are supporting. A Personal Plan helps break big goals down into small achievable steps and to share some responsibilities between the person being supported and the support worker. The small steps are the exploration of past, often forgotten personal assets is guided generally by an examination of nine’’ life domains’’, which include life skills, finances, leisure activities, relationships, living arrangements, occupation/education, health, internal resources ( strengths, confidences, problem-solving), and recovery. In the meantime, the case manager should strive to hear the patient’s goals and aspirations before they hear evidence of his or her past problems, mistakes, or weakness.

Coordination

Coordination in the model means an array of activities coordinated through regular interaction with clients wherever they may be found to assure service needs are met. These include, but are not limited to, assessment and evaluation, continuous service planning and monitoring. The performance of these functions should be coordinate. For example, the case manager initiates an assessment of the client’s strengths, needs and potential solutions to the problems. Then, a case plan that addresses the client’s treatment and other resource needs is developed. That means the case manager will help coordinate a comprehensive plan of services and informal supports for an individual of family.

Strengths and weaknesses

The strength of Strength-based models is to assist a population of persons with mental illness to make the transition from institutionalized care to independent living. It enables to be implemented by the principle of the model which is focusing on assisting the client to utilize his or her strengths and assets as the vehicle for acquiring needed resources. However, the weakness is that if there is too much focusing on the strengths, problems may be ignored. People also may not be able to address some new ideas or make changes if they only perform on their own strengths.

Perspectives

The patients are assisted in reestablishing an awareness of internal resources such as intelligence, competence and problem solving abilities ; establishing and negotiating lines of operation and communication between the patient and external resources; and advocating with those external resources in order to enhance the continuity, accessibility, accountability and efficiency of those resources.

Expected outcomes

The strengths assessment and plan are being used. It provides information to research, supervision and case load planning goals. The supervisors can check on the status of individual on their caseload. Those reports also show the amount of work being conducted in the various life domains, the frequency of goal being completed; and the relationship between various patient profiles and their success in completing goals.

Needs assessment and service coordination

Assessment

It is a process that helps people identify their disability support requirements. This involves a needs assessor meeting with a client, usually in their home, and completion of a Supported Needs Assessment Form. Support Assessment is necessary if you require access service coordination support and there is a need to access government funded services.

The goal of the needs assessment is to figure out how to maximise your independence so that you can participate as fully as possible in society.

A Needs Assessor meets with a person (and their support people) to carry out a needs assessment. The main purpose of a needs assessment is to find out what is needed to help a person be as independent as possible in their home and community. The assessor will ask for information about what the person can and can't do, what they would like to be able to do, and what help or resources they currently have. The Assessor will also ask about a person’s recreational, social and personal development needs, their training and education needs, their vocational and employment needs and where appropriate, the needs of their family/whanau and unpaid support people.

Planning

After a needs assessment, a service coordinator works with the family/whānau to establish a support plan to meet the prioritised assessed needs and goals of the child or young person and, where appropriate, their family/whānau or caregivers. These needs may include:

access to an up-to-date directory on mental health/community services

identification of current services involved in meeting aspects of the needs and remaining unmet needs

identification and documentation of actions that are necessary to address those unmet needs and to achieve agreed goals

when needs cannot be met from publicly funded services, referrals will be made to a range of community-based services as appropriate in accordance with the assessment.

Coordination

It is the process of selecting and organising the services required to meet the disability related needs that were identified during Support Assessment. This involves the development of a Support Plan which identifies what should happen to assist with maintaining or promoting client independence.

Service Coordination involves informing the client of the options and arranging services. This includes:

facilitation of access to community mental health and disability support services that will enable people with mental illnesses to lead their lives as independently and productively as possible

development of practical service and support options to address identified needs utilising public, private and voluntary services

prioritisation of the needs of the service user and management of the demand for available services by determining relative priority between those accessing services

development of a service or ‘lifestyle’ plan

the match of available resource with needs, ensuring resources are used efficiently

management of an allocation for carer relief or home support

access management to support services, including residential services.

Strengths and weaknesses

Identify the strengths of NASC service as below:

Promoted collaboration and strong working relationships

Fostered a regular review process for service users in residential(supported accommodation)

Enabled greater joint working using packages of care

Created a single point of contact

Provided a positive experience for service users and their families

Operated as part of the wider multi-disciplinary team

There are some its own advantages and disadvantages. The combined needs assessment and service coordination model is thought to provide a comprehensive approach with a directory of services and refers and links the individual to those services and refers and links the individual to those services which are selected. It is suggested that the service user only needs to deal with one person using this combined model and the NASC pathway is more timely.

Where the needs assessment and service coordination functions are separate , it has been suggested that the advantages are a more focused needs assessment often undertaken by a clinician or a trained needs assessor , and then a greater scope of services are offered by a service coordination service. The disadvantages of this model have been suggested as having created extra processes requiring the needs assessor to hand over the information to the service coordinator. There is the potential for information to be lost. However some services have suggested that this is an efficient approach directing the appropriate skills to the parts of the NASC pathway.

Perspectives

The Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination team assists elderly people to access services that will keep them living at home, safely and independently, for as long as possible. In some DHBs clinicians conduct the needs assessment. While this provides detail about the needs of the individual from the clinical perspective, it has been suggested that other perspectives need to be added to ensure a holistic needs assessment is undertaken. Other DHBs have remedied this by asking clinicians to commence the needs assessment with the clinician’s perspective, and then adding the perspectives of the other members of the multi-disciplinary team until it is completed.

Expected Outcome

This model found potential opportunities for service improvement commencing with a greater understanding of the benefits of a NASC service within the service continuum and how NASC can be developed to enhance service user outcomes. Implementing the following recommendations will achieve this.

To understand and confirm the NASC model that they have chosen. This service model is strengthened the enhance service user responsiveness and improve matching of needs and aspirations to services.

To extend NASC responsibilities to incorporate access management to Community Support work and packages of care. This is a growing component of the service continuum.

To recognize the value of NASC in prioritization of limited resource and therefore invest in NASC workforce to meet service requirements. NASC budget holding for aspects of service such as packages of care is further explored for implementation.

To review processes in place to ensure service users needs that may fluctuate over time are addressed.

To work collaboratively to achieve consistency in systems and processes within the region including adopting standards, guidelines, service specifications, data collection and assessment tools.

To confirm the preferred skill mix of their NASC teams and seek to develop NASC expertise using recruitment strategies, training programmes a competency framework and establishing a regular networking forum.

Comparisons between models

The comparisons between (a) strength-based models and (b) needs assessment and service coordination, are described as follows. The strength-based model works with disables with sufficient strength to achieve self-improvement. However, if one suffers from severe disabilities, it will be difficult to find an outstanding strength to carry out the activities of the strength-based model. Due to the limitation of the disables, their strengths are not able to be effectively applied and implemented, not to mention the enhancement of them. The needs assessment model, on the other hand, focuses on taking care of the target group but does not provide them future personal developments. It aims to provide services and supports to disables but not teach them how to develop their own specializations.