Carly Jeffery and Barbara Hurtado ask whether Maslow’s Assessment of Needs Scale gives an accurate picture of clients’ requirements

The Maslow Assessment of Needs Scale for Learning Disabilities (MANS-LD) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-8) are measures to assess quality of life for people with learning disabilities. This article describes how a specialist acute assessment and treatment service for adults with learning disabilities, complex needs and challenging behaviours evaluated the use of these instruments to assess clients’ perceived quality of life. Most service users found the MANS-LD too demanding on account of its length, the complexity of questions and the need to think retrospectively. The WHOQOL-8 was accessible to the larger majority and was therefore more robust as a measure in these circumstances. However, both tools were invaluable in generating revealing conversations with responders about important topics that might otherwise be overlooked. As the article makes clear, such scales should be completed with service users through discussion, rather than asking them to accomplish this themselves.