RE: A question about measuring clients' problems

["psylevin" <psylevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Message

Let us not reinvent the wheel.  Sttressful life events scales have been around for 40 or more years. There ios an abundance of research on thier use. Murray Levine

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-4150663-6832333@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bounce-4150663-6832333@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of PRITCHARD, ARNIE
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 11:13 AM
To: Child-maltreatment-research-L@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: A question about measuring clients' problems

Dear Listserv- The Connecticut Department of Children and Families recently implemented a new data collection system for services provided to clients by private providers under contract.  In brainstorming about ways to use the data, we came up with the idea of a "problem index", which would be a way of aggregating several date elements into one number to assess the level of problems in a person's life. 

 

For example, the data collection tool asks whether each of the following occurred to each child/youth during his/her participation in behavioral health programs:

 

    1. was arrested

    2. was incarcerated or detained

    3. was hospitalized for psychiatric or behavioral health reasons

    4. was evaluated in an ED for psychiatric or behavioral health reasons

    5. had a problem with alcohol or drugs

    6. was suspended or expelled from school

 

One could assign a point for each "yes" answer, and wind up with a scale from zero (none of the problems) to six (all of them).  One could go through a similar exercise for the client's experiences before intake. 

 

Our question is, are indices such as this likely to be at all useful, and if so can anyone offer advice on how to construct and use them?  References to relevant literature would be welcome. 

 

Thank you for your attention.

 

 

Arnold Pritchard

Planning Specialist

CT Department of Children and Families

505 Hudson Street

Hartford, CT 06106

860-550-6574