Consistent with evidence-based practice and clinical standards of care, Modern Health Members can view the results of their clinical assessment scores from the WHO-5, PHQ, and GAD on their well-being journey page. This article reviews the features of the well-being journey page and provides guidance on how you can support members in understanding and using their scores to guide care.
Based on evidence-based approaches (e.g., Allen, 2022; Finn, 2020; Lewis et al., 2019) that use clinical assessments to improve care, there are 3 key principles to keep in mind when interpreting assessment results:
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No single score or number “defines” a person
- Assessment scores don’t always accurately reflect a member’s experience or perceived well-being, so it’s important to collect context of their experiences to better understand the member’s assessment results
- Do NOT rely on assessment scores alone to make care decisions (e.g., diagnosis, treatment plan)
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Empower the member to use and understand their health data
- Explain assessment scores in plain language for the member to understand
- Invite dialogue about their scores in relation to their self-report of their lived experience or symptoms
- Members are invited to disagree with the assessment score, and provide context into why their experience might differ from what the assessment results show
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No score or score pattern is “good” or “bad”, it’s just information
- The concept of a well-being “score” can bring up notions of a “grade” or a “perfect score”. In the case of clinical assessments, it’s important to help your member take a non-judgemental approach to understanding their assessment scores- Assessment scores can be information on what is working well in care, what habits are contributing to improvements in well-being, or what potential triggers are driving increases to anxiety or depressive symptoms
When members fill out their “health checkup” or Well-being Assessment, they currently complete the following clinical assessments that are summarized in the table below. For more detailed information on each assessment, click the links in the table below.
Where can the member locate this information?
Members will be prompted to fill out their first health checkup prior to having matched to any provider, from the main member page.
Members can also fill out a health checkup and view their well-being journey at any time from their Home Page under the section titled “Your well-being” and tap “Do a checkup”.
After having been matched with a provider(s), the member will continue to receive email automated reminders to complete a health checkup before 1:1 sessions and will see the below prompt from their Home Page every 2-3 weeks.
Please note that you are not able to prompt your members to fill out clinical assessments from your dashboard. If you would like to notify your member to fill out their health checkup, you can direct them to follow the instructions in this Member Knowledge Center article or you share this link, which will route them directly to the Member health checkup.
Members can take as many health checkups as they’d like or need throughout their journey at Modern Health from their Home Page under the section titled “Your well-being” and tap “Do a checkup”.
Please see below for the view of what members will see from their member account:
Members can view:
- Visual display of their scores
- Plain-language explanations of what each score means
- “Learn more” section that explains each measure
- Graph that displays recent score for that month
- Recent assessment scores that display a history of health checkup scores
As a therapist or PAMM provider, you will have access to the member’s completed WHO-5, PHQ, GAD assessments on your dashboard. For further direction on how to find the member’s profile please see How do I view my client's well-being assessment scores? It is the responsibility of these providers to use clinical assessments to guide care when appropriate and help their members understand their clinical assessment results. These providers can use the general score interpretation in the table above as a reference, lean on their own clinical training on using routine measurement in care, and/or use resources such as the Provider Education Training on Integrating Measures Therapeutically in Care.
Clinical assessment scores that indicate a need for further risk assessment such as the endorsement of the PHQ9 item 9 self-harm and suicidal ideation question, you will notified via email and in your provider dashboard. For more information on these alerts and recommended next steps, please review [Therapist & Medication Management Providers] What does the alert icon next to my client's name indicate?.
As a coach, you can view and discuss a member’s WHO-5 and Care Form results. You can access the member’s scores from their client profile. For further direction on how to find the member’s profile please see How do I view my client's well-being assessment scores? As a coach, you are able to discuss a member’s WHO-5 assessment scores, how to interpret these results, and how it relates to what brings them to coaching.
The PHQ9 and GAD7 scores are currently not available on the Coach dashboard.However, if a member asks you about their score, you can share the purpose and score interpretation available in Tab X. It’s important to have a conversation with the member that asks if they feel their scores match their lived experiences and perceptions of their wellbeing. If appropriate, initiate a conversation about a referral to therapy.
Allen, J. (2002). Assessment training for practice in American Indian and Alaska Native settings. Journal of Personality Assessment, 79(2), 216-225.
Finn, S. E. (2020). In our clients' shoes: Theory and techniques of therapeutic assessment. Routledge.
Kamphuis, J. H., & Finn, S. E. (2018). Therapeutic assessment in personality disorders: Toward the restoration of epistemic trust. Journal of personality assessment.
Lewis, C. C., Boyd, M., Puspitasari, A., Navarro, E., Howard, J., Kassab, H., ... & Kroenke, K. (2019). Implementing measurement-based care in behavioral health: a review. JAMA psychiatry, 76(3), 324-335.
Poston, J. M., & Hanson, W. E. (2010). Meta-analysis of psychological assessment as a therapeutic intervention. Psychological assessment, 22(2), 203.
Shimokawa, K., Lambert, M. J., & Smart, D. W. (2010). Enhancing treatment outcome of patients at risk of treatment failure: meta-analytic and mega-analytic review of a psychotherapy quality assurance system. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 78(3), 298.