Comprehensive

Multnomah Community Ability Scales are used to assess symptoms, functioning, and behavior of adults who have psychiatric disabilities and live in the community.

 

Valued by End-Users

It takes an average of 10 minutes to complete either of the Multnomah Scales. The Instrument indicators focus on areas that are important to mental health consumers and community mental health staff alike.

 

Unique

First created in 1983 by community mental health case managers, MCAS has been tested and refined over time by a consistent team of community mental health staff, university researchers and advocates. Both instruments (Clinician and Self-Report versions) are based on standard methodology for rating scale development. They measure degree of functional ability through seventeen indicators.

 

Theses indicators are rated on a 5 point scale and are grouped into four sections:

 

• Health - Physical, mental and emotional symptoms that interfere with daily functioning (5 indicators)

• Adaptation - Critical abilities for coping with serious mental illness and surviving in the community (3 indicators)

• Social Skills - How people with psychiatric disabilities interact with others (5 indicators)

• Behavior - Personal actions that affect community tenure and positive service outcomes (4 indicators)

 

Training Support

MCAS instruments are distributed with User's Manuals that describe scale development, reliability and validity studies, applications and indicator descriptors.  The MCAS-R (clinician version) also comes with a staff training video/DVD with rating practice exercises.