What specific type of psychological outcome do you want to measure?

Good question! 

Primarily, psychological distress. I think the domains measured by the CORE-LD look great:

https://www.coresystemtrust.org.uk/?wpfb_dl=9

I reckon something more accessible might allow people with more severe intellectual / learning disabilities to express how they were feeling in relation to the various areas, but I am unsure whether such a tool exists.

I know the CORE-OM is quite widely used as a general measure of psychological well-being and functioning, and might be suitable, as the questions are reasonably easy. I haven't used the CORE-LD, though. It's free, as well (the forms, at least). See attached.

Thanks Paul. The CORE-LD looks like a good candidate, although I am concerned that its relative complexity might limit its use with people with more severe intellectual / learning disabilities. 

I have also looked at:

• The PTOS-ID (developed by Nigel Beail)
• The MANS-LD
• The Mini-MANS-LD
• Various VAS scales
• Bespoke scales such as a staircase with the question "if the bottom was the worst and the top was the best, where would you be for ____?"

Charlie

We have also been looking at this in our service and have looked at all the above measures you have looked at and also struggled to find a measure that would be accessible to the widest number of people. 

What we a now using as a service is a bespoke three point scale anchored at good, okay and bad with symbols to support accessibility. This is presented along with a VAS for people who want more points than the three offered. 

This is used by all the HCPs within our service to measure the effectiveness of their work and so the question is dependent on the referral/intervention and is simply "how are you doing with _________?". This is now incorporated into the care planning process. We have been using this as a ROM for the last year.

As a psychology service we use HoNOS-LD as a PROM, but we use this mainly as an informant report OM due to the language used and the number of options given. We then will use other measures dependent on referral reason e.g GDS or GAS.

If you want to talk further, please drop me a PM and exchange contact details, if you think this would be helpful. We are happy to share the Outcome measure and care plan form that we are using.

Best

Tom

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your very detailed response! I just returned from annual leave so please excuse my delayed reply. Interestingly, I also settled on a three-point universal OM for the moment.

I would be interested in discussing this further. I'll PM you.

Best wishes,

Charlie

I've spent the last few years developing and validating some mood scales suitable for people with communication problems. D-VAMS (Dynamic Visual Analogue Mood Scales) involve using sliders to change facial expressions denoting particular emotions. Though developed for stroke survivors with aphasia, they should be useful as a general, nonverbal measure providing of course that the user can understand facial expressions.

I am currently validating them in a group of stroke survivors, and preliminary analyses show that the scales have good validity and reliability. Obviously, they have not been examined in people with learning disabilities, but in the absence of anything else, they might be of some use to you. Preliminary vallidation study findings can be found in the "abstract" details here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270162465_Developing_Mood_Scales_Suitable_for_Use_in_Stroke_Patients_with_Aphasia_poster

The prototype can also be downloaded from my page. 

Conference Paper Developing Mood Scales Suitable for Use in Stroke Patients w...

I've spent the last few years developing and validating some mood scales suitable for people with communication problems. D-VAMS (Dynamic Visual Analogue Mood Scales) involve using sliders to change facial expressions denoting particular emotions. Though developed for stroke survivors with aphasia, they should also be useful as a general, nonverbal mood measure, providing, of course, that the user can understand facial expressions. 

I am currently validating them in a group of stroke survivors, and preliminary analyses show that the scales have good validity and reliability. Preliminary vallidation study findings can be found in the abstract details below.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270162465_Developing_Mood_Scales_Suitable_for_Use_in_Stroke_Patients_with_Aphasia_poster

The prototype can also be downloaded from my page. 

Conference Paper Developing Mood Scales Suitable for Use in Stroke Patients w...

 Hi Paul,

That's a fascinating piece of work, and a creative, accessible way to measure mood. I'll take a closer look at the information. 

I'll PM you to exchange contact information.

Best wishes,

Charlie

Thanks, Charlie. A lot of work went into them. Hopefully they'll prove to be a useful addition to the world of mood assessment...