Multi-Problem Screening Questionnaire

The Multi-Problem Screening Questionnaire or MPSQ scale is a brief multidimensional self-report measure that gives you rapid client assessment across eight areas of personal and social functioning with the use of only 65 items! It is therefore extremely efficient as an initial assessment tool and when used at the end of treatment it provides an excellent measure of improvement. The MPSQ is not a personality inventory. It is a very practical assessment tool that is used to help you with initial problem assessment, service or treatment planning, progress monitoring, and program evaluation.

MPSQ Highlights

Here are just a few highlights which make the MPSQ one of the most exciting and useful innovations in client assessment that you can obtain from any source.

Interventionally relevant
Age appropriate at 12 years and up
Easy to understand
Easy to complete
Easy to score
Easy to interpret
Subscale clinical cutting scores
Superb problem profile graph
Good to excellent reliabilities
Good to excellent validities
Cost effective
Ecologically and Systems Sensitive

Practitioners who use a systems or ecological perspective to guide or shape their practice often have been frustrated by the paucity of assessment tools that are appropriate for their orientation to practice. The MPSQ is very likely the best available solution to this assessment need because problem definition and evaluation are not based on assumptions about client centered psychopathology. But the greatest advantage of all is the production of assessment results that are immediately relevant to the conduct of service delivery and treatment.

Improved Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

The principal use of the MPSQ is to obtain an accurate assessment of client problems during the intake or beginning phases of treatment or service delivery. Accurate and reliable assessments help you to make greatly improved diagnostic judgments and to devise improved treatment plans.

Problems in Living

The MPSQ is not a measure of psychopathology and it should not be used as such. The MPSQ measures problems in living and it makes no assumptions about the source or cause of the problems with which your clients seek help. Instead, it helps you to obtain an excellent measure of the degree or magnitude of problems clients experience so that you can more quickly and confidently establish service and treatment priorities -- the heart of case planning. Because the MPSQ measures problems in living rather than client psychopathology it is especially well suited to help you with the tasks of treatment planning and progress monitoring.

Evaluating Improvement

Although the major use of the MPSQ is for early assessment of client problems, it also can be used for periodic re-evaluation by having clients complete it during interim phases of treatment. When used in this manner it will provide a description of progress, stability, or deterioration that has occurred during the period between administrations.

Post-Test & Follow-up Evaluation

Whether the MPSQ is used for interim assessment or not, it is especially well suited for use immediately before termination of service delivery or treatment as a means of reflecting progress over the entire period of work performed with a client. With an initial and final MPSQ assessment you can see at a glance exactly where and how much change has occurred with respect to your clients problems in personal and social functioning.

The MPSQ Profile

The subscale scores on the MPSQ are easy to compute and understand. However, they are more readily comprehended and used by presenting them in the form of a graphic profile. The ability to see those problems quickly in relation to other areas of functioning will prove to be an important aid to treatment planning, case management, ongoing assessment, and progress monitoring.

Computer Scoring

Although the MPSQ is very easy to administer, score, and interpret, some may wish to have computer scoring capability to insure accuracy and to save time. The WALMYR Assessment Scale Scoring Program (WASSP) provides a quick and easy means of scoring any of the multidimensional assessment scales. Note: CASS/CAAP are no longer available and we are unable to provide technical support for them.