The experiences of therapists using a new client-centred psychometric instrument, PSYCHLOPS (Psychological Outcome Profiles)

Abstract

PSYCHLOPS (‘Psychological Outcome Profiles’) is a newly developed client-generated psychometric instrument which can be used as an outcome measure. Uniquely, it asks clients to state their own problems, in their own words. As part of its validation, we used it alongside an existing measure, CORE-OM (‘Clinical Outcomes Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure’). Based on a qualitative methodology, we report here on the first-hand experiences of four therapists using both instruments.

The key themes that emerged from therapists’ responses were feasibility, validity and usefulness.

Both questionnaires were perceived as complementing each other, the qualitative information from PSYCHLOPS balancing the quantitative information from CORE-OM and that both could contribute to the therapist-client interaction. The key features of PSYCHLOPS are likely to prove attractive to therapists and should increase acceptance and uptake of outcome measures.

Keywords:

• Psychometric instrument
• patient/client generated measure
• views of therapists

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Chris Manning who kept us rooted in the concerns of clients and John Mellor-Clark who helped us with planning the validation of PSYCHLOPS.