NORTHWEST RENAL NETWORK

Psychosocial Tools and Resources for Assessing Patients

The following are some resources and tools that can aid renal social workers in the assessment of patients:

· The Kidney Disease Quality of Life survey (KDQOL) is a disease-specific survey that includes a generic functioning and well-being survey plus questions related to kidney disease like burden of illness, satisfaction with care, sexual functioning, and more. You can find a couple of versions of the survey and associated scoring templates online at the KDQOL website (both are free, but you must register to download them) at http://www.gim.med.ucla.edu/kdqol/.

· The SF-36 is a Quality of Life (QOL) instrument available at http://www.sf-36.org/. This website has both the SF-36 and SF-12 samples. Before administering these forms, registration and licensing fees are required.

· The Geriatric Depression Scale (short form) is available at http://www.stanford.edu/~yesavage/GDS.html and can be downloaded for your use free of charge. It is easy to score, and scores can be prorated to remove the somatic components such as energy, appetite, etc. A Spanish version is also available.

· The Beck Depression Inventory Fast Screen (BDI-FS) for medical patients is copyrighted and is available for a fee. The BDI Fast Screen was constructed to reduce the number of false positives for depression in patients with known biological, medical or substance abuse problems.

· The Physicians Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is copyrighted, and is available in English and Spanish. To read and agree to the terms of usage, locate scoring instructions and register for download go to http://www.depression-primarycare.org/clinicians/toolkits/.

· The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Short Form (CESD-SF) QOL tool is used to measure current depressive symptoms. Items on the short forms contain simple vocabulary in short sentences. The CESD-SF can be administered by self-report or interview. A pdf version is available for download at http://patienteducation.stanford.edu/research/cesd10.pdf.

· The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is a free assessment tool developed by the UN Whole Health Organization. The assessment tool may be administered as an interview or as a questionnaire. The tool comes in both Spanish and English. A pdf version of the tool and manual is available for download at http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2001/WHO_MSD_MSB_01.6a.pdf.

· The Council of Nephrology Social Workers (CNSW) has a listserv where social workers can join and request peer input on difficult cases: http://www.kidney.org/professionals/CNSW/.

· The PedsQL Measurement Model is a modular approach to measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in healthy children and adolescents and those with acute and chronic health conditions. The PedsQL Measurement Model integrates seamlessly both generic core scales and disease-specific modules into one measurement system. A PedsQL ESRD Module is under development. Information and the tool may be accessed at http://www.pedsql.org/.

· Aid To Capacity Evaluation (ACE) is a tool to help clinicians systematically evaluate capacity when a patient is facing a medical decision. Information and the tool may be accessed at http://www.utoronto.ca/jcb/disclaimers/ace.htm.

· The International Transplant Nurses Society (ITNS) maintains a comprehensive summary of instruments/tools that have been used with transplant subjects. Each summary contains the instrument/tool’s name, and information about variables, populations, descriptions, reliability, validity, language, copyright, fees, sources, and references. The summary may be accessed at http://itns.org/research/resources.

Contact Aaron Herold, LICSW Patient Services Coordinator

for further questions and assistance

206-923-0714.

page modified November 16,2007