Notes for carers of people with learning disabilities for completing the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD7)

·  These notes are to help you complete the questionnaire.

·  It is a set of questions which are used by your doctor to monitor depression and anxiety. It is also used to show how someone is responding to treatment.

·  If you are concerned that the person you support with learning disabilities is mentally unwell you can ask your doctor for a copy of the (PHQ9) and (GAD7) to complete. You can complete this with the person before they have an appointment.

·  Completing it before the appointment will mean you can take time to explain what is being asked on the questionnaire. It will also prepare them for their doctors’ appointment and help the doctor make a better decision about the treatment needed.

·  The questionnaire asks for the person to say how often over a two week period they have been bothered by problems such as:

Little interest or pleasure in doing things

Feeling nervous, anxious or on edge

·  You then have to tick how often this happens

Not at all

Several days

More than half the days

Nearly every day

·  What you are looking for when completing the form are changes to normal behaviour. For example, the person may always be anxious but you have noticed that their level of anxiety has become worse and they are no longer able to cope day to day.

·  To support the individual you will need to spend time talking about how they are feeling and find out what terms they use to explain their feelings:

sad, angry, scared, stressed, upset, worried, down, confused

·  With each question you may need to change the wording.

·  Remember - Use open questions. Use activities which mean something to the person:

I have noticed you have been waking up very early in the morning. How do you feel when you wake up?

I have noticed you have n’t been going to play cards with your friends. Why is that?

·  When you are trying to explain how often these problems happen you may need to link time to activities:

Since you went to the cinema on Monday how have you been feeling?

·  As the carer you will also need to observe for changes in behaviour and keep a record of how often a problem happens.

·  Before the doctor’s appointment, agree with the person what extra information they want you to tell the doctor. This will help the doctor build up a full picture of the problems being experienced.