At Meaningful Measures we have completed our first project with Gloucestershire CCG and NHS England and NHS Improvement, implementing MYCaW® and using it to explore the concerns of people living with frailty. The MYCaW® concerns data was also analysed according to levels of clinical frailty to understand if people's concerns change as frailty becomes more severe.
Read our report here: https://bit.ly/36X66Oe
The project ran between September 2020 and February 2022 collecting data from people under the care of the Complex Care @ Home Service, South Cotswolds Frailty Service teams and Frailty Nurses/Matrons in Primary Care. Staff experience of using MYCaW® showed that the measure was acceptable and worked well in practice.
310 people completed the baseline questionnaire and 113 people provided follow-up MYCaW® concern and wellbeing scores. The modal person was 85-89 years old and female. MYCaW® concerns scores showed statistically significant improvements, and a high percentage of people (71%) had clinically significant levels of score changes. There was also a statistically significant mean improvement in wellbeing scores for the whole group. When that data was stratified concerns improved regardless of the severity of frailty, but wellbeing scores only statistically significantly improved for people experiencing mild frailty. Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scores did not change over time.
A bespoke MYCaW® frailty coding framework was created to report the MYCaW® concerns in a standardised manner. The five most frequent concerns related to mobility, managing the household and activities of daily living (ADLs), physical problems, housing and independence. Interestingly the profile of concerns changed for people with severe frailty. Using MYCaW® therefore enables healthcare practitioners to further understand, anticipate and personalise the support they provide.
Joanne Appleton, Senior Manager for Integrated Personalised Care, SW NHSEI said:
"Understanding the concerns of people with different levels of frailty benefits them and their carers, as personalised approaches can be used to tailor their care to 'what matters to them'. In addition, this information is invaluable to commissioners who can ensure services are shaped around the actual needs of the individuals they are serving, enabling more efficient use of resources and better outcomes for the population. That's why I am excited about the potential of using MYCaW as a tool for people with frailty."
