Effectiveness of a rehabilitation professional's advice and suggestions on a care manager's self-assessment scores of their care management.

[Purpose] To verify how advice or suggestions from rehabilitation professionals affect self-assessment by care managers. [Participants and Methods] This was a cross-sectional study in which a survey was administered to care managers from in-home care support offices in nine randomly selected municipalities. The survey was used to self-assess how the advice and suggestions from rehabilitation professionals affected the participant's care management process. [Results] Responses were received from 419 participants (response rate 11.3%). Of these responses, 388 (92.6% valid response rate) were analyzed, which revealed that 349 (89.9%) participants had received support from a rehabilitation professional, while 39 (10.1%) had not. Participants who had received support from a rehabilitation professional had significantly higher self-assessment scores than those who had not. Univariate and multiple regression analyses revealed that the factors affecting the self-assessment score were as follows: community care conferences as a support system was a negative factor and years of experience as a care manager was a positive factor. [Conclusion] Advice and suggestions from rehabilitation professionals affect improved care managers' self-assessment scores.

Grasping the structure of the care management process evaluation items that are related to care management skills with regard to individual users: conducting verification through self-assessment by care managers.

Objective: This study aimed to understand the structure of a self-assessment for evaluating the care management skills of individuals in the care management process. Materials and Methods: A survey was distributed to 964 care managers in home care management hailing from each committee in Japanese municipalities in Ibaraki, Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Tokyo. The process implementation degree of care management in 46 care management process evaluation items was assessed using a five-point method. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were derived for the items, and an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the factor structure. We also verified the relationship between the factor scores, presence or absence of a chief care manager, and years of experience. Results: We received 385 responses (response rate: 39.9%), of which 372 were included in the analysis (valid response rate: 96.6%). Six factors were extracted, and 29 items were retained because of the exploratory factor analysis. Three of the six factors did not exist in the existing scales and had a unique structure. The cumulative contribution rate of the six factors was 64.9%, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient for all items was α=0.95, with Factor 1 being 0.88; Factor 2 being 0.83; Factor 3 being 0.86; Factor 4 being 0.85; Factor 5 being 0.80; and Factor 6 being 0.87. The total score for Factors 1, 2, 4, and 5 was significantly higher among chief care managers. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the correlation between scale scores and years of experience. Factor 1 (r=0.22) and Factor 2 (r=0.21) showed a modest positive correlation between the scale scores and years of experience. Conclusion: We retained 29 items and extracted six factors for the care manager self-assessment items that had a unique factor structure while following existing scales' factor structure.

Factors affecting the interest of rehabilitation professionals indirectly supporting preventive care projects.

[Purpose] To identify the factors affecting the interest of rehabilitation professionals who indirectly support preventive care projects. [Participants and Methods] Rehabilitation professionals (physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language-hearing therapists) working in 617 hospitals and other health facilities in A Prefecture, Japan. On the basis of their degree of interest in the activities of their respective preventive care projects, the professionals were classified into three groups after evaluating their responses to a self-reporting questionnaire (1,851 parts in total). The subsequent comparisons were performed among the three groups and their responses to the remaining questions. [Results] Analysis of the responses provided by 354 of the 374 rehabilitation professionals who answered the questionnaire revealed the following factors affecting their degree of interest in the preventive care projects indirectly supported by them: advanced age; abundant years of experience practicing; being speech-language-hearing-therapists; experience in post-graduate training; and considering the scope of support as a part of the community. Furthermore, the vast majority of individuals in the group showing superior interest had experience in activities related to indirect support. [Conclusion] Confirmation of the extent to which indirect support by rehabilitation professionals is effective for preventive care services is essential, since such support is difficult to demonstrate, unlike direct support.