CUES-C Re-development Project
Carers' and Users' Expectation of Services - Carers' version: a review of outcomes measures for carers of people with a mental health problem.
Project background
Rethink Mental Illness was part of a team which developed the original CUES-C questionnaire in 1999. At that time 2 questionnaires were developed, one for carers (CUES-C) and one for service users (CUES-U).
In 2005, the Department of Health commissioned a review of outcomes measures for carers of people with a mental health problem. CUES-C was identified as a good questionnaire under most of their criteria, however it had not been fully tested for its psychometric properties. The report recommended that CUES-C be re-developed and fully tested as a matter of urgency.
The questionnaire asks about the wellbeing of carers and the levels of support they receive. It is intended to be used by services to structure a conversation with carers and also to measure outcomes of services.
The project is in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Alzheimer’s Society, and is funded by the Department of Health.
Project Stages
Workshops: Three workshops are held with carers recruited through Rethink Mental Illness and the Alzheimer’s Society, to review the original questionnaire and comment on how it could be improved, and identify areas that it did not adequately cover.
Questionnaire re-development: Taking the information from the workshops, the project team re-design and re-write the questionnaire to reflect the broader range of areas covered and to make it more effective for psychometric purposes.
Piloting: The carers who took part in the workshops are asked to review the questionnaire and amendments are made on the basis of their comments.
First field testing: The newly developed questionnaire is sent to carers from Rethink Mental Illness and the Alzheimer’s Society’s services and support groups. Over 400 questionnaires are sent out to get at least 200 back. The responses are then analysed to show how well the questionnaire is performing. Participants are also asked to give feedback on what they think of the questionnaire itself.
Re-development: The questionnaire is changed again to reflect the results of the first field trial. Poorly performing questions are changed or removed.
Second field testing: The questionnaire is sent to a different group of carers and the results are again analysed to assess the performance of the questionnaire. During this field trial, NHS sites are also used to recruit carers.
At the end of this process, a fully tested questionnaire should be available to be used by Rethink’s services and other carer support services, including in the NHS. The project is expected to be completed by the end of August, 2008.
