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| Outcome Measurement from the Consumer Perspective |
Outcome Measurement from the Consumer Perspective
Before the rise of the recovery movement, there were few self-rated outcome measures. Possibly the earliest and most common were, and still are, measures of psychological distress, such as the Mental Health Inventory (Veit and Ware, 1983) and its derivatives, and the Kessler-10 (Andrews and Slade, 2001). Consumers use a rating scale to report levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. A more consumeroriented approach was realized with the assessment of individual needs. The most used and tested needs measure is the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule (CANSAS; Slade et al., 1999). The CANSAS assesses the client’s met and unmet needs in 22 domains, including accommodation, household skills, relationships, child care, and transport. Each domain can be rated as ‘No Need’, ‘Met Need’ or ‘Unmet Need’ from the perspective of the consumer, clinician and carer.
Potentially closer to a holistic recovery perspective is the assessment of quality of life (QoL). Quality of life has been conceptualized and operationalized in a variety of ways; while some measures are little more than checklists to assess the impact of a specific disease or illness, others assess satisfaction in a number of life domains, either as a questionnaire or in interview format. A number of QoL measures have been developed specifically for people with a mental illness. For example, the Quality of Life Interview (QOLI; Lehman, 1988) assesses satisfaction across eight domains:
living situation, family, social relations, leisure, work, safety, finances and health; the self-rated Quality of Life Inventory (Frisch et al., 1992), assessing satisfaction in 17 life domains including spirituality, creativity, civic action, and community; and the Wisconsin Quality of Life Index (W-QLI; Diamond and Becker, 1999), which assesses nine dimensions including symptoms, activities of daily living, emotional wellbeing, and personal goal attainment. The W-QLI has companion provider and caregiver versions.
Before the rise of the recovery movement, there were few self-rated outcome measures. Possibly the earliest and most common were, and still are, measures of psychological distress, such as the Mental Health Inventory (Veit and Ware, 1983) and its derivatives, and the Kessler-10 (Andrews and Slade, 2001). Consumers use a rating scale to report levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. A more consumeroriented approach was realized with the assessment of individual needs. The most used and tested needs measure is the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule (CANSAS; Slade et al., 1999). The CANSAS assesses the client’s met and unmet needs in 22 domains, including accommodation, household skills, relationships, child care, and transport. Each domain can be rated as ‘No Need’, ‘Met Need’ or ‘Unmet Need’ from the perspective of the consumer, clinician and carer.
Potentially closer to a holistic recovery perspective is the assessment of quality of life (QoL). Quality of life has been conceptualized and operationalized in a variety of ways; while some measures are little more than checklists to assess the impact of a specific disease or illness, others assess satisfaction in a number of life domains, either as a questionnaire or in interview format. A number of QoL measures have been developed specifically for people with a mental illness. For example, the Quality of Life Interview (QOLI; Lehman, 1988) assesses satisfaction across eight domains:
living situation, family, social relations, leisure, work, safety, finances and health; the self-rated Quality of Life Inventory (Frisch et al., 1992), assessing satisfaction in 17 life domains including spirituality, creativity, civic action, and community; and the Wisconsin Quality of Life Index (W-QLI; Diamond and Becker, 1999), which assesses nine dimensions including symptoms, activities of daily living, emotional wellbeing, and personal goal attainment. The W-QLI has companion provider and caregiver versions.
