Measuring mental health outcomes in primary care
This section provides a brief overview of the purpose of measuring outcomes and provides links to further information about outcome measurement. Additionally it provides links and information about a number of tools that are applicable to measuring mental health outcomes in a primary care context.
Rationale for using outcome measurement
There are several reasons why we should use mental health outcome measurement in primary care settings. Three of the main reasons are that providing outcome measurement can help:
- people with their progress towards mental well-being
- identify mental health issues and hence assist with providing early intervention
- services to aggregate data which can support service development, research and quality improvements.
Te Pou's Information programme provides more advice on using outcome measurement.
Screening and assessment tools
There are a range of mental health screening and assessment tools that can be used to measure outcomes for those accessing mental health services in primary care settings. Below is a list of tools recommended by the New Zealand Guidelines Group.
- Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)
- Clock drawing test
- CRAFFT acronym for alcohol and drugs
- Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
- Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment Tool (GAD-2, GAD-7)
- Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)
- Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)
- Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE)
- Patient Health Questionnaire for Depression (PHQ-9)
- Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS) (NB there is a fee for use of this tool)
- Substance Use and Choices Scale (SACS)
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) ages 4-10 yrs/
11-17 yrs/parent version - Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) young people/parent version
Access the New Zealand Guidelines Group tools (together with scoring instructions)
Some examples of how these tools have been used to measure outcomes for people receiving mental health services within primary care are given below.
- The national evaluation of the primary mental health initiatives, University of Otago utilised the K10, PHQ9 and GHQ-12 tools.
- More Than Brief Relief: The Rural Canterbury PHO Brief Intervention Coordination (BIC) Service - The evaluation document available within this profile talks about Rural Canterbury PHO's use of K10 as their outcome measurement tool.