Development and psychometric properties of a team formulation measure in intellectual disabilities services

This article describes the development and use of the Formulation Understanding Measure to evaluate team formulation with staff supporting people with intellectual disabilities.

A quantitative design with an opportunistic sample was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Formulation Understanding Measure (FUM) including pre- and post-administration at case formulation workshops. The measure was developed based upon experience of delivering case formulation workshops and was administered alongside case formulation workshops with 347 staff team members.

The measure was found to have acceptable psychometric properties with good internal reliability, a single principal component, and associations with training and demographic factors. It was also sensitive to changes resulting from case formulation workshops with the measure showing that staff increased in their understanding of the person with intellectual disability following a formulation workshop.

The FUM will enable routine evaluation of team formulations and further studies in the area.