Using the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy (AusTOMs-OT) to measure client participation outcomes

Introduction: Measuring change in clients’ ‘participation’, and being able to attribute this change to occupational therapy intervention, is important in the quest to provide evidence to support practice. The Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy is an outcome measure that has four domains, one of which is concerned with measuring client participation. An occupational therapy service wanted to determine if client level of participation was improving, as measured by the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy. Method: Data were collected between 2009 and 2012 from three home-based therapy services, using the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy. Data were divided into diagnostic cohorts, and then exploratory data analysis techniques and paired t-tests were performed. Findings: Data from 506 participants were analysed and clients in all diagnostic groups made statistically (p < .05) significant improvements over time in relation to their participation. Conclusion: Most clients in this study improved or maintained their level of participation between admission and discharge, with few clients deteriorating, when measured on the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy scales. These results suggest the home-based therapy service was meeting its goal, and further supports the responsiveness of the Australian Therapy Outcome Measures for Occupational Therapy to detect change in clients’ participation status over time. Randomized control trials are needed to determine whether improvements in participation are due to engaging in the occupational therapy program.