RAI instruments

To ensure reliable results when assessing a client’s need for care, service and rehabilitation, it is important to use the right RAI instrument. 

The following questions aid you to select the RAI instrument that is best suited for the task at hand:

1. What are the clients to be assessed like? What kind of assessment data and which triggers best serve the clients and the services being planned for them?
2. What are the clients living and operating environment like? Are the assessment questions of the RAI instrument suitable to get accurate information of clients coping in such an environment?
3. What RAI data is monitored in the strategy of the area and organisation? Which RAI instrument produces the desired benchmarking data?

RAI instruments used in Finland

The international RAI instruments available in Finland are:

• interRAI-CHA (Community Health Assessment)
• interRAI-CA (Contact Assessment) + HELSA©
• interRAI-HC (Home Care)
• interRAI-LTCF (Long Term Care)
• interRAI-ID (Intellectual Disabilities)
• interRAI-MH (Mental Health)
• interRAI-CMH (Community Mental Health)
• interRAI-ESP (Emergency Screener for Psychiatry)
• interRAI-ChYMH-DD (Children and Youth Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities)
• Supplements:
  • interRAI-CHA-MH (Mental Health Supplement)
  • interRAI-CHA-FS (Functional Supplement)
  • interRAI-CHA-AL (Assisted Living Supplement).
  • interRAI-ChyMH-A (Children and Youth Mental Health and Development Disabilities Adolescent)

Multipurpose interRAI instruments

The interRAI instruments make it possible to utilize the RAI assessment data of a client when the client transfers from one service to another.

The questions of the interRAI instruments comprise two entities:

• Core questions that give a wide overview of the client’s situation. The core questions are the same in all RAI instruments. This way, data from earlier assessments can be utilized even if a new assessment is carried with another RAI instruments. 
• Complementary instrument-specific questions that are used for assessing the client’s functioning or mood in more detail, for example. 

Starting to use the interRAI tools

Transferring from the MDS-HC and MDS-LTC instruments used in Finland to the corresponding interRAI instruments is easy. The differences in questions and instructions are not very big.

The benchmarking data generated by the interRAI instruments can be combined and compared with the benchmarking data generated by the earlier RAI instruments to the extent that the data is equivalent.

The benchmarking data based on assessments from organizations using interRAI-instruments will be generated and available when a sufficient number of assessments has been performed. 

An organisation must arrange a sufficient amount of training when it transfers to using the interRAI tools.