Every day at Pact, we get to see evidence of the positive contribution we are making in the lives of the people we support. 

One client might find a new job, another might achieve their recovery and leave Pact’s service, and another might have just learnt to make a tasty lasagne. It is a lot more difficult, however, to get an overall picture of the impact Pact has on our clients’ lives. 

Over the past couple of years, Pact’s analysts Taryn Knox and Isaac Hensman have been developing a tool that aims to measure the change in the quality of life of the people we support. The Measurable Outcomes Tool is a short survey that support workers and clients will complete together four times a year. Support workers and clients are asked to rate from one to five statements such as “I like the people I live with”, “I have learnt new skills” and “I have a lot of fun”.

“The tool will work on two levels”, says Isaac. 

On the one hand, it will give Pact as an organisation valuable information so that we can make informed decisions that will improve our clients’ lives. 

“But it should also be a useful exercise at the level of the support worker and client, just sitting down and reflecting on how everything is going in that person’s life.”

The Measurable Outcomes Tool is now largely complete, and has been tested in eight services throughout Otago, Southland and the West Coast. 

“After testing it a couple of times we made a few changes,” says Isaac. “We’ve pretty much tried to make it as user-friendly as possible”.

The tool will be launched as a paper survey in first half of 2009, and by the end of the year it will be fully integrated in the Client Management System so that it can be completed on computer.