A Behavioural Rating Scale for Mental Patients

Abstract

In connection with a demonstration programme of comprehensive psychiatric care for hospitalized schizophrenic patients, it was necessary to develop a rapid and effective method for rating patients' ward adjustment and social behaviour. The scale, entitled the Albany Behavioural Rating Scale (ABRS), and its validation, are described in this report. The nature of the problem required that the scale be readable, easily completed and scored, and suitable for use by nursing and rehabilitation personnel (OT, CT, Music Therapist, etc.). Further requirements included adequate scoring reliability and validity, as well as amenability to quantification.Various rating scales have been described in the psychiatric literature, but these did not meet our needs. Some were too cumbersome and time-consuming. Others required individual psychiatric interview. Frequently they demanded high literacy of the rater. Certain scales are indeed useful for special purposes, as for example the MSRPP (Lorr, 1953) which can be employed with confidence as an aid to psychiatric classification. Lucero and Meyer (1951) have discussed the requirements of an adequate rating scale.