The
type and extend of use of occupational-based assessment in Occupational Therapy
practice. Availability, Reliability, and Validity.
The type of occupational-based
assessment in Occupational Therapy practice that I choose is Assessment of
Motor and Process Skills (AMPS). Fisher and Jones (2010) explain that the AMPS
is an innovative observational evaluation designed to be used by occupational
therapists to evaluate the quality of a person’s performance of activities of
daily living (ADL) in natural, task-relevant environments. However, studies
also proved that the mechanism of AMPS can also be applied in Instrumental
Activities of Daily Living (IADL). AMPS are another type of assessment besides
Modified Barthel Index and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure which can
be used to evaluate change in occupational performance problems over time.
Fisher
and Jones (2010) shows that the unique design of the AMPS allows the
occupational therapist to compare the quality of performance of a person who
performed different AMPS tasks each time he or she was evaluated. In a like
manner, the AMPS can be used to compare performance among groups of persons who
each performed a different set of AMPS tasks. The AMPS provides occupational
therapists with a powerful and sensitive tool that can assist in planning
effective interventions and documenting the effectiveness of occupational
therapy interventions. The AMPS provides a vocabulary that the occupational
therapist can use to describe the quality of a person’s occupational
performance — what and how a person does what he or she needs and wants to do,
given the demands of the ADL task and the resources and demands of the physical
and social environment. Thus, the patient’s limitations can also be analysing
by using this type of assessment as well as to prepare the occupational
therapist in planning the next interventions to be given suitable for the patient.
McAdam
et al. (2001) conduct a study involving thirty-six occupational therapists that
completed a training course on the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills
(AMPS), held in the West Midlands, took part in a follow-up evaluation. This
examined the effectiveness of the AMPS training on the occupational therapy
service delivery. Twenty-eight structured interviews were carried out with
occupational therapists from the West Midlands region and eight postal
questionnaires returned from occupational therapists outside the region. The
outcome indicated that observation skills had improved and that the AMPS was an
appropriate tool to use for the purposes of assessment, guiding intervention
and measuring outcomes of occupational therapy. There were variations in the
ease with which the AMPS was administered with different client groups, but 89%
of the occupational therapists were still using the AMPS at 9 months following
training across a range of services. The main difficulties encountered were a
lack of access to a computer and the additional support needed for the AMPS to
be fully integrated into clinical practice. The adaptability of the AMPS as a
standardised assessment and outcome measure makes it a good choice of tool to
use across an occupational therapy service.
The
reliability of this assessment is proved by Oakley and Sunderland (1997) which
help to explain the usefulness of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills
(AMPS) as an outcome measure of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL)
in pharmacologic studies of people with Alzheimer's disease. The AMPS
simultaneously measures motor and process skills and their effect on the
ability of the person to perform familiar IADL tasks. They administered the
AMPS to 11 Alzheimer inpatients in a 31/2-month, double-blind,
placebo-controlled, crossover study of fluoxetine and selegiline administered
as single agents and in combination with physostigmine. Results indicated that
there was a significant difference in IADL ability among study conditions for process
skills, but not for motor skills, thereby suggesting that the AMPS is useful as
a sensitive outcome measure of IADL ability in drug trials with this
population.
Lockhart
and Lestage (2003) state that dementia is generally defined as “a state of serious
emotional and intellectual deterioration” and affects memory, language,
visuospatial skills, cognition and personality. Its prevalence increases
markedly after 75 years of age; making it a disease of older persons. Hebert
and Brayne (1995) proved that Alzheimer disease (AD), a progressive
neurodegenerative disease, is one of the most prominent forms of dementia and
accounts for 70% of all cases. The prevalence of AD has been estimated to double every 5 years after the age of 65
and rises to 47% in people over 85 years of
age.
Besides
that, Kirkley and Fisher (1999) proved that the alternate-forms reliability of
the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) where alternate forms means
different pairs of AMPS tasks, was studied with 91 people who have who had
performed four AMPS tasks. Results support use of the AMPS activities of
daily-living motor and process scales. In
addition to that, Doble et al. (1999) proved the findings of a study of 55
elderly adults support the test-retest reliability of the Assessment of Motor
and Process Skills, it illustrate the utility of alternative methods for
examining the reliability of individual subjects' measures, and indicate that
not all test-retest differences represent measurement error.
Moreover,
another Doble et al. (1994) journal also proved the use of AMPS. The journal
explain the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) is an observational
measure of functional competence in instrumental activities of daily living
(IADL) that was designed to overcome the limitations of self-reports and proxy
reports. The AMPS allows simultaneous evaluation of the underlying motor and
process (organizational/adaptive) skills necessary for competent task
performance. They examined the IADL performance of 22 community-dwelling
patients with mild to moderate Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in comparison to
nondisabled subjects matched for age and gender. Functional competence of the
MS subjects, as measured by the AMPS, was poorer than that of the control
group. Many MS subjects who would not have been expected to have IADL
difficulties on the basis of ratings of neurologic impairment were impaired in
their IADL performance. For some patients, IADL impairment reflected deficits
in their motor and process skills, whereas for others, process skill
impairments alone were responsible for deficient task performance.
Multiple
Sclerosis Society of Canada (2008) explains that Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a
disease that may affect the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves (central nervous
system). MS is thought to be an autoimmune illness, which means that the immune
system incorrectly identifies the body’s own tissue as a target of attack. In
the case of MS, the immune system attack affects myelin, the fatty coating that
protects the nerve fibres of the central nervous system. Damaged myelin may
form scar tissue (sclerosis). Often the nerve fibre itself may be affected.
When any part of the myelin coating or nerve fibre is damaged, messages moving
through the central nervous system can be disrupted. Damaged areas are often
called “lesions” or “plaques”.
McNulty
and Fisher (2001) explain the validity of this assessment by evaluating the
ability in activities of daily living (ADL) of 20 participants with the AMPS
before discharge from an inpatient psychiatric unit. Within approximately two
weeks of their discharge, the participants' home safety was evaluated within
their home settings using the Safety Assessment of Function and the Environment
for Rehabilitation. To form a basis for comparison, a second administration of
the AMPS was administered concurrently with the home safety evaluation.
Moderate positive relationships were found between ADL motor and ADL process
ability and home safety in both the clinic and the home; however, analyses of
the sensitivity, specificity, and overall predictive values revealed that home
ADL process ability was the best predictor of home safety for participants who
were categorized as less safe in the study. Findings suggest that clinic ADL
evaluations using the AMPS give a reasonable estimate of home safety for
participants categorized as having more home safety risk. For participants
categorized as having less home safety risk, clinic ADL evaluation using the
AMPS produced significantly less accurate estimates than ADL evaluations
conducted in the home. These results indicate that home safety estimates may be
most accurate if they are based on home rather than clinic ADL process ability
measures.
Bernspång
and Fisher (1995) conduct a study on the validation of the AMPS for use in
Sweden. AMPS is an observational assessment of the extent to which motor and
process skill deficits impact on domestic or instrumental daily living task
performance (IADL). The validity of the AMPS scales was evaluated in terms of
(a) unidimensionality of the items and tasks that comprise each scale, (b)
person response validity, and (c) the ability of the scales to differentiate
among clients of varying levels of functional ability. The results of a
multi-faceted Rasch analysis revealed overall scale and individual response
validity of both AMPS scales. The AMPS motor and process scales also
differentiated significantly between clients who were judged to be independent,
to require minimal assistance, or moderate to maximum assistance in order to
live in the community. The results of this study support the validity of using
the AMPS evaluation technique in Sweden.
Ay-Woan
Pan and Fisher (1994) also proved the validity of the Assessment of Motor and
Process Skills (AMPS) by evaluating a heterogeneous sample of subjects with
psychiatric disorders. Sixty subjects, ranging in age from 16 to 72 years,
participated in this study; 30 were persons without disorders living in the
community; 30 had diagnosed psychiatric disorders. Two univariate F tests were
used to test the hypothesis that mean AMPS measures would differ significantly
between the group with and the group without psychiatric disorders. The
hypothesis was supported for both AMPS motor and process scale measures. As
would be expected among a sample that includes many higher functioning persons,
many subjects with psychiatric disorders did just as well as subjects in the
group without psychiatric disorders. Motor as well as process skill abilities
of persons with psychiatric disorders were evaluated. Because the AMPS provides
more specific features than other global functional instruments, it can help
clinicians plan treatment and intervention more effectively. Further
examination of the motor and process skill deficits within and among diagnostic
subgroups and of the effect of medication and prolonged hospitalization on AMPS
motor and process abilities is indicated.
In
conclusion, AMPS is a suitable occupational-based assessment in Occupational
Therapy practice because it has evidence of availability, reliability and
validity. The assessment of occupational performance can take place at
different stages of the occupational therapy process (such as initial referral
or during the intervention process) and in different settings (such as in the
client’s home, school, hospital, community locations). Assessment is necessary
to establish a baseline of a client’s occupational performance skills which may
include activities of daily living such as play and leisure, self-care and etc.
on which service planning and therapy intervention can be based. Assessment is
vital to inform our decisions regarding specific clients and programs.
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