Mental Health Outcomes and Assessment Tool (MH-OAT)
The Mental Health Outcomes and Assessment Tool (MH-OAT) was developed by the NSW Centre for Mental Health to improve assessment, treatment and outcomes for mental health clients across NSW. This initiative has been designed to address three major goals in the provision of services:
- Accurate assessment of all clients entering the mental health service with an aim of providing the most appropriate interventions.
- Strengthening the assessment skills of all clinicians.
- Standardisation of recording and reporting assessments and interventions to ensure continuity of care for clients moving within and across services.
MH-OAT will ensure that the procedures necessary for the design and delivery of standardised assessment, triage, outcome measurement, care planning and discharge protocols are uniform and conform to the philosophy of collecting information once and using it many times. Communication will be clearer, and the risks of misinterpretation of information greatly reduced.
The protocols for standard assessment are based around clinically relevant transition points: admission, review, discharge and follow up. These points allow for clinicians to develop appropriate management and care plans for the client and to compare the client’s clinical status before, during and after the provision of care.
Standardisation has been sought through the development of modules for the recording of assessment information, treatment interventions and outcome measurements. Whilst much of this information is recorded on forms designed for this purpose, client demographics, outcome measures and the record of treatment interventions (service contact information) are stored electronically. Hard copies (printed, or written reports) are filed in the client’s medical records file.
All clinical mental health staff receive training in the principles and protocols of MH-OAT as well as more specialised training in the entering of data into the electronic system. It is a mandatory requirement that this initiative be followed in all NCAHS Mental Health Services.
Child and Adolescent MH-OAT (MH-OATCA)
With the recognition that Child and Adolescent Services have specialised needs, the second phase of MH-OAT, developed standard modules and protocols accordingly to create MH-OATCA. The MH-OATCA initiative aims to provide assessment documentation and outcome evaluation guidelines suitable for use in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and when assessing young people.