Developing an accessible and useful wellbeing measurement tool for adults with learning disabilities

Background aims
Standardised tools potentially provide a quick and reliable way for measuring wellbeing that can be used during monitoring and evaluation to understand how services are performing over time and in comparison to other services.

This was a collaborative project between researchers from Leeds Beckett University, University of Liverpool, and Purple Patch Arts (a community organisation that work with adults with learning disabilities). The aim was to make a pre-existing wellbeing measurement tool more accessible for adults with learning disabilities and more useful for organisations working with adults with learning disabilities.
Methods
An existing standardised tool was adapted into a version that could be completed using a tablet. Adults with learning disabilities taking part in Purple Patch Arts’ sessions tested the new measure. We also asked staff at the activities what they thought about the new version.
Results
The accessible tablet version was found to be as reliable as two other existing standardised tools as a measure of wellbeing for adults with learning disabilities. Adults with learning disabilities and staff much preferred using the tablet version – it was more engaging, collaborative, and inclusive. However, the tablet version remained extremely resource intensive to use and relied on staff already having a relationship with adults with learning disabilities to help them complete it. Most adults with learning disabilities would still not be able to complete it independently in a service setting.
Conclusion
The new tablet version had strengths compared to existing wellbeing measures. However, at this stage it is not a replacement for more personalised approaches to understanding services users’ wellbeing. The accessible tablet version is a potential complementary data source in monitoring and evaluation, but more work is needed to understand its usefulness in different service settings and with more diverse groups of adults with learning disabilities.