Developing and trialling a social work outcomes framework in a community rehabilitation health setting

This article explores the development of an outcome framework for social workers in a health service called Rehabilitation in the Home (RITH). The lack of established outcome measures for social workers prompted a quality improvement (QI) project that led to the development of this research. A literature review was conducted to identify other outcome measures in health and social work-related outcome measures, and consultations with social workers and health department services were carried out. A social work outcomes framework was developed and trialed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the social work service interventions, as well as the utility of outcomes measures for social work health services. In this article, we begin by examining the role of outcome measures in social work within an evidence-based practice framework, before describing the process for developing the measures. We present evidence of the outcomes data collected to illustrate the framework. This article adds to the literature on outcomes reporting on social work interventions in health and rehabilitation practice settings, particularly with identifying and responding to risk.