FORUM – Forensic Outcome Measure

The FORUM

A new patient reported outcome measure for forensic mental health services, combining the patient and clinician perspectives

Forensic mental health services provide care to people in secure psychiatric hospitals and via specialised community teams. Such services are typically low volume and high cost, often highly restrictive and average duration of inpatient care prior to discharge is long.

The Forensic Outcome Measure (FORUM), is designed to help safeguard patients and the public, monitor progress, inform treatment plans and assist in service evaluation and planning.

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The FORUM was developed in accordance with best practice development guidelines. It is simple to complete within 1-2 minutes from both a patient & clinician perspective, which allows for a high response rate.

FORUM contains two separate, but linked questionnaires: a Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM), and a Clinician Reported Outcome Measure (ClinRO).

All decisions during development were empirically informed and involved considerable input from the full range of stakeholders, including patients both as participants and in guiding the research through a Patient and Public Advisory Group (PPAG).

The outcome framework consists of six overarching domains

‘About me’, concerns questions of self-concept and encompassed ideas of meaning and belonging, as well as feelings of control and wellbeing;
‘My quality of life’ considers the interaction of a person with the outside world and the degree of satisfaction this affords that individual. Outcome areas in this domain span from simple items, such as whether a person’s basic needs are met, to more complex concepts, such as whether they feel respected and accepted by others;
‘My health’ then considers the individual’s physical and mental health, such as whether they are able to maintain a healthy weight or their mental and emotional health is good;
‘My safety and risk’ concerns both behavioural and internalised aspects of risk, such as avoiding behaviours and situations that reduce safety and recognising and coping with difficult feelings;
‘My life skills’ incorporates both current and future capabilities, from being able to look after every day needs, to being able to make realistic plans;
‘My progress’ attempts to quantify the person’s position within the care pathway, both considering where that individual is at that point in time, to thinking about where they need to move towards.

Permissions to use

Apply for a licence to use the FORUM

The FORUM is free of charge for healthcare providers, publicly funded organisations and use within academic studies.

We require you to take a licence for the use of the FORUM as this allows us to protect the integrity of the copyright, gain insight into the use of the FORUM and provide you with the latest and official materials.

Please note that without the prior written consent/licence from Oxford University Innovation, you are not permitted to use, reproduce, alter, amend, convert, translate, publish or make available in any way (digital, hard-copy etc.) the FORUM and related proprietary materials.

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