Mental health payment-by-results clusters and the model of human occupation screening tool

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, payment for mental health services follows a system of payment-by-results. A mental health clustering tool, classifying individuals into clusters based on service needs, was developed as a broad-based means of planning care packages. It is yet unknown whether payment-by-results clusters will be reflective of the occupational needs of service users. To evaluate the relationship between service users' membership in service need clusters and occupational groupings based on outcomes from an independent measure on participation and engagement in self-care, productivity, and leisure (Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool [MOHOST]), retrospective medical record data were gathered from 675 service users with a range of psychiatric disorders from two organizations in England. Using six subscales of the MOHOST, the two-step cluster analysis identified occupational groupings. Then the multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine whether the mean scores of the six MOHOST subscales were significantly different across the occupational groupings. Finally, participants' membership in the payment-by-results clusters was compared to their membership in the occupational groupings. Participants fell into one of three levels: high-, middle-, or low-functioning occupational groups. These groups did not bear direct relationships with the individual payment-by-results clusters. This suggests that the mental health clustering tool and the MOHOST are likely targeting different characteristics in the service users. Copyright American Occupational Therapy Foundation.