Interviewing people with learning difficulties for service evaluations: a comparison of two interview formats

User involvement in service planning and evaluations has been
given a high priority both by the government and by healthcare
providers. Consumer satisfactions surveys are one of the main
methods by which this process is undertaken. The use of
interviews is one way to obtain the views of users on the
services that they receive.
This study attempts to overcome some of the problems
encountered when interviewing people with learning
difficulties. The study evaluates the effectiveness of an
interview format using systematic prompts to elicit more
responses from subjects which are considered meaningful.
The results showed that the experimental interview format
significantly enhanced the response rate and produced more
information, both positive and negative, about services than
did a control interview.
It did not have an affect on the meaningfulness of the
responses obtained. The ability to give meaningful responses
was positively correlated with the subjects' IQ scores.
The study supports the use of simple interview formats, with
systematic prompts, to facilitate interviews and to obtain
more information from people with learning difficulties about
the services they use. The format could easily be adapted to
evaluate a range of services.
The study highlighted the importance of comprehensive
communication assessments in the development of interview
techniques for people with learning difficulties. Other issues
arising from the research are discussed and suggestion for
future research and developments are made.

This thesis supplied via ROAR to UEL-registered users is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, and duplication of any part of the material is not permitted, except for your personal use for the purposes of non-commercial research and private study in electronic or print form. You must obtain permission from the copyright-holder for any other use. Electronic or print copies may not be offered, for sale or otherwise, to anyone. No quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.