Document type: Compilation article Research report/Study Online-Publication
Publication title: The Mini-ICF-APP family of assessment instruments for impairment in acitivities and participation in the context of psychological disorders

Background:

The ICF states that it is not an assessment instrument. The ICF items are furthermore not very systematic. Therefore it is necessary to have instruments which extract core elements of the ICF.

Aim:

To introduce the different versions of the Mini-ICF-APP as complimentary family of assessment instruments for capacity limitations.

Methods:

To describe activities/capacities and participation in persons with psychological probems the family of "Mini-ICF-APP" instruments has been developed. Thiss comprises a) an observer scale with thirteen general capacities which are found throughout the ICF activity/capacity section, allowing an expert rating from "no problem" to "complete problem" in relation to participation restrictions; and similar to this b) a self-rating scale; c) an expert rating of work environments; d) a self rating of work environments (Molodynski et al. 2013).

Results:

Empirical tests have shown that the different Mini-ICF-APP forms cover different aspects of capacities and participation and can be seen as complementary to each other. There is the contrast of expert and sel assessment. There is the comparison of person and envirnment evaluation.

Discussion and Conclusions:

The Mini-ICF-APP has been introduced in clinical practice and in expert assessments, and is recommended in sociolegal assessment guidelines. It helps to quantify and qualify capacities in relation to different environments. It is an instrument which can guide the examination of patients in different settings and improve the reliability of judgements on capacity and disability.