This is the SWEMWBS. Er, bless you?! No, it stands for the “Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale” Maybe the longest possible name for the shortest questionnaire!

I was given a copy of this to fill out on two occasions recently: when registering with a mental health charity locally in the hope of accessing a community-based personality disorders support group, and at the first session with my Recovery Coach. I’ve lost count of the number of questionnaires of this ilk that I’ve done since my mental health conditions wete first diagnosed, for example one or two page scales at the GP Surgery to rate anxiety and depression, to 10 page booklets at the personality disorders service, repeated to examine changes through my treatment. The SWEMWBS is by far the shortest of all these, which could be a strength. I still found it tricky partly as to my mind it seems to have gone to the other, overly simple, extreme. However that does all depend on what you want to measure and why. I may have found it tricky because it didn’t match what I wanted to express. What I want to express might not be what services, support agencies and so on, wish to measure. Arguably, services do need to make sure there is the opportunity for us as patients / clients / service users to express what we feel is most important and often this can’t be slotted into a tick box or numerical scale. I’ve been fortunate that people working with me have given time and importance to that which doesn’t fit into these kind of measures.

As part of their work, a member of my family is exploring initiatives to support and promote mental wellbeing. They are looking at using scales like the SWEMWBS to measure how people feel across participating in activities, and whether the way they feel changes. The activities could be social groups, exploring nature together, art and art appreciation, developing and sharing particular skills – generally community based projects. Reporting how you feel on long complex scales proved off putting and daunting, understandably. In my opinion, there is a certain conflict between the fact that the most respectful and detailed way to find out how someone is feeling may be simply having a discussion with no constraints on how they express themselves; whilst at the same time, to analyse whether a particular activity or therapy has helped, there does need to be some form of quantifiable (so usually numerical) analysis of changes in how someone feels.

My family member asked me for thoughts and feedback on the above and to share my experience on how I find using scales like the SWEMWBS. How meaningful is it? How does it compare to unrestricted feedback where we can express freely verbally or in writing how we feel?

I’d be interested to know readers’ thoughts if you have any you would like to share, whether or not you’ve completed these kind of scales yourself.

I could pass these thoughts on anonymously if you wished, or not if you do not wish.

Thank you!!

Ginny xxx

The Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale is copyright NHS Health Scotland, The University of Edinburgh, The University of Warwick (2008).