The development of the QUALITRA-ID: a user-orientated interview to assess the quality of care and service trajectories for intellectually disabled persons.
QUALITRA-ID gives you a 15-minute client interview that spots service bumps people with ID actually care about.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new 24-question interview called QUALITRA-ID. They wanted adults with intellectual disability to rate their own care journey.
They ran four small focus groups with clients, parents, and staff. Ideas were tested, re-worded, and tested again until the questions were clear.
What they found
The final tool fits on two sides of paper and takes 15 minutes. Clients could answer with words, pictures, or gestures.
Staff said the answers showed gaps they had missed, like long waits or unclear next steps.
How this fits with other research
Early et al. (2012) looked at 24 quality-of-life tools and found only six worked well for people with ID. QUALITRA-ID adds a fresh option that focuses on service steps, not just happiness.
Guerin et al. (2009) built a grief interview for the same group. Both studies used the same small-group testing style, showing the method keeps clients in the driver’s seat.
van Schrojenstein Lantman-de Valk et al. (2006) made a sexual-knowledge test and warned that low scores do not always mean high risk. Likewise, QUALITRA-ID warns that low ratings do not always mean poor care—clients may need more explanation before judging.
Why it matters
You now have a free, short interview that lets clients flag what feels confusing, slow, or unkind in their care. Use it at intake, annual review, or when a goal stalls. One staff member can ask the questions; another writes the answers. The printout gives you a quick map of where to smooth the path next.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Care and service trajectories for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are routes within the healthcare delivery system that consist of all the steps that people with ID and their families have to take in order to realise the needed care and services. In contrast to the growing system-orientated knowledge concerning quality of care delivered through collaborative relationships between care providers, specific user-orientated knowledge regarding the quality of care and service trajectories is largely lacking. AIM: This article aims to describe the development of the QUALITRA-ID; a user-orientated interview concerning the quality of care and service trajectories for people with ID. METHODS: First, the phenomenon 'care and service trajectories' is conceptualised on the basis of document analysis and semi-structured interviews with key informants in the field of health care for people with ID. Second, the quality of care and service trajectories is operationalized by means of eight focus group discussions with intellectually disabled persons and their parents/relatives and a review of the literature. Third, the QUALITRA-ID is constructed using the results of the conceptualization and operationalization of the phenomenon. Fourth, the QUALITRA-ID is refined in two stages that were concerned with examining the feasibility, understandability and completeness of the QUALITRA-ID. The second stage was also concerned with the first quality assessment among people with ID. RESULTS: The final result is a 24-item QUALITRA-ID consisting of a personal conversation and a closed-ended part.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2010 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01253.x