All successful applicants will be contractually obliged to use the WEMWBS with their service users both at enrolment and again at the end of the project period. The scores are to be submitted using the spreadsheet provided.
What is WEMWBS?
“The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale was developed to enable the monitoring of mental wellbeing in the general population and the evaluation of projects, programmes and policies which aim to improve mental wellbeing. WEMWBS is a 14 item scale with 5 response categories, summed to provide a single score ranging from 14-70. The items are all worded positively and cover both feeling and functioning aspects of mental wellbeing, thereby making the concept more accessible. The scale has been widely used nationally and internationally for monitoring, evaluating projects and programmes and investigating the determinants of mental wellbeing.” (Stewart-Brown, 2018 ).
How is WEMWBS relevant to this programme?
DWM hopes to tackle loneliness and isolation in Devon. These two variables have been strongly evidenced as contributing to poor mental health in communities. If projects are successful in addressing loneliness and isolation, then it should be possible to evidence a positive shift in the mental health of the service users. The scale being proposed to quantify this shift has been shown to be effective on a national scale.
The questionnaire and data collection form can both be downloaded here.