The Benevolent Society trialled three measurement online tools and conducted face-to-face interviews to measure our ageing clients’ experience and the quality of life in their home environment.
As part of our ageing research and evaluation agenda, The Benevolent Society has embarked on a healthy ageing and wellbeing pilot project centering on the measurement of personal well-being in older people living at home.
This provides an evaluation framework for healthy ageing and prevention of social isolation in later life based on three outcome measurement tools. Each of these tools focuses on different aspects of life:
- Economic well-being
- Emotional support
- Received social care.
The three online measurement tools were trialled through face-to-face interviews with The Benevolent Society clients. This way we could understand our clients’ experience and quality of life in their home environment. This foundational research has provided valuable insights into the perspective of older people. This is measured at both at the beginning of a baseline and at 6-month service interval for each client taking part in the trial.
The information is so helpful that now The Benevolent Society is building these evaluation measures into our standard client assessment tools and support plans. The most significant findings came from the ASCOT, an internationally recognised tool designed to measure the aspects of an individual's quality of life that can be affected by ‘social care-related quality of life’ (SCRQoL). Put simply, it reflects what people say about what makes the most difference to their quality of life in eight areas:
1. Control over daily life;
2. Personal cleanliness and comfort;
3. Food and drink; personal safety;
4. Social participation and involvement;
5. Occupation;
6. Accommodation;
7. Cleanliness and comfort;
8. Dignity.
This information is valuable for understanding which aspects of social care interventions have the greatest potential to improve people's lives, as well as measuring the tangible impact of social care-related quality of life initiatives and track improvements over time.
Our research is consistent with current analysis “that control over daily lives is most important to both service users and the general public”. This holds significant meaning and opportunities for The Benevolent Society as we endeavour to create a greater quality of life and lifestyle.
The findings from The Benevolent Society Wellbeing research.
69% of The Benevolent Society clients reported that they felt that they have enough ‘control over daily life’, When being asked to compare how much control they would have if they didn’t receive home support services from The Benevolent Society, only 10% believed that they would have control over their life.
93% clients reporting feelings of adequate cleanliness as compared to only 31% if home support services were not provided.
70% of clients reported that they are able to spend time the way they want and still retain a good quality of life as compared to only 14% if services were not provided.
These research findings confirmed a high level of dependency on regular home support services provided by The Benevolent Society. 'That’s the most important thing to me, to stay in my home…. I live the best life that I can and what can be better than to be in my own home and my garden.' Maureen – Home Care Support Client
Source and Index:
Economic Living Standard Index (ELSI) is an index created by New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development (MSD), designed to serve as a measure of a household’s living standards. The index contains three key elements: Essentials, Economising and Self-Assessments.
Medical Outcomes Study - Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS) is a brief multidimensional measure of perceived social support developed by Sherbourne and Stewart (1991). It is maintained and promoted by the influential RAND Corporation in USA. It contains 19 functional support items to measure five dimensions of social support: Emotional support, Informational support, Tangible support, Positive social interaction and Affectionate support.
Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) has been developed by the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent. The ASCOT measure is designed to capture information about an individual’s social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL). There are eight key domains: Control over daily life, Personal cleanliness and comfort, Food and drink, Personal safety, Social participation and involvement, Occupation, Accommodation cleanliness and comfort, and Dignity.