Level of functioning (LOF) has increasingly become a critical issue within the mental health field. Policy makers use LOF to compare costs and benefits, mental health care organizations use LOF to track client progress and evaluate new treatments, and agencies use LOF to evaluate individuals who are seeking services. Clients with serious mental illness (SMI) are an extremely heterogeneous group in terms of presentation, characteristics, and needs; however a great deal of uniformity exists in their high level of service utilization. This study examines the reliability and validity of a structured clinical interview designed to assess level of functioning in SMI populations. The interview is designed to assess experiences along six dimensions: interpersonal relationships, family living situation, socio-legal issues, medical/physical functioning, role performance, and self care/basic needs. Each scale consists of related questions and problem severity ratings that aid in the assignment of a functional score for each of the six subscales. A random sample of 355 assessments were drawn from a larger sample of interviews conducted with SMI clients in Southern Arizona. Three key relationships among the scale's components were investigated: (1) questions to problem severity ratings, (2) questions to functional scores and, (3) problem severity ratings to functional scores. Results of correlation analyses and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence of internal consistency reliability and both convergent and discriminant validity for the structured interview.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/280189 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Johnson, Gwendolyn Watkins |
| Contributors | Sechrest, Lee |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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