Sensitivity Of The Health Of The Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) To Changes Between The Start And End Of Episodes Of Care For Consumers In Public Mental Health Services

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By May 12, 2015 No Comments

Authors: Tom Trauer, Tom Callaly

Year: 2001

Event: 2001 TheMHS Conference

Subject: book of proceedings, Research, Evaluation, Quality Improvement, New research on outcome measurement

Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers

ISBN: 1876939079

Abstract: Outcome measurement is about the assessment of change. To date, most studies have examined changes between admission and discharge in acute psychiatric inpatient units. Little is known, however, about changes in the community. Barwon Health, in Victoria, has been using several measures, including HoNOS, for over a year. We compared the mean profiles of consumers at intake and case closure, and show improvements in most areas that HoNOS covers, but especially in the area of depression. We estimated that HoNOS detected no change in about half the episodes and real improvement in the other half. Changes were about the same whether the same or a different clinician performed the two ratings. Analyzing according to diagnosis, we found that improvements concentrate in the areas that would be expected to be the greatest problem. Our results suggest that the HoNOS is sensitive to changes between intake and closure of episodes of care in the community.

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