Carers' and Users' Expectations of Services – User version (CUES–U): A new instrument to measure the experience of users of mental health services

No existing instrument measures all or even most of the issues considered important by users of mental health services. To develop and test a self-assessment instrument to enable users of mental health services to rate their experience across the range of domains that they consider to be important. Relevant domains were identified and a new instrument was drafted and field tested to examine its psychometric properties. The 17-item, self-rated Carers' and Users' Expectations of Services--User version (CUES-U) appears acceptable to most service users. Its items have reasonable test-retest reliability and a 'total CUES-U score' correlates significantly with a total score of the Health of the Nations Outcome Scales (Spearman's rho=0.42; P < 0.01). The development and testing of CUES-U suggest that it might be feasible to apply a self-rated measure of the expectations and experience of users of mental health services.