Psychosocial difficulties - PARADISE24fin
The PARADISE24fin is an instrument designed to measure difficulties in functioning. It can be used for the purposes of a single evaluation or longitudinal follow-up. The PARADISE24fin can be administered via interview by a caregiver, but also functions as a self-administered instrument.
For professional caregivers
The PARADISE24fin should be administered at the beginning of treatment when possible in order to provide a baseline evaluation of the patients functioning before treatment. Information regarding changes in functioning can be obtained when the evaluation is repeated, e.g. at admission and discharge from inpatient care, or every three to six months in outpatient care. Please remember to mark the date of administering the PARADISE24fin instrument on the form.
It is advisable to review the results with the patient. You can e.g. go through the areas of life with which the patient has experienced severe or extreme difficulties. At the same time, it is possible to address with how many areas the patient does not have difficulties.
The needs for change that the patient has reported should be discussed when treatment goals are set. It is especially important to note the needs for change, which the patient has freely reported and may not be included in the PARADISE24fin instrument.
During follow-up, it is possible to additionally address the following questions: which areas of life have improved/deteriorated; has the patient achieved the goals or changes in the areas that he/she had previously marked as important?
The following questions address problems and difficulties you might have in your life. Please answer them, thinking back over the past 30 days and taking both good and bad days into account. If you have no recent experience of the issue, choose the option that suits you best: for example, if you have not worked and working would have been extremely difficult in your current health condition, tick 4).
Please, tick 1 to 5 issues that you most wish could be changed.
The anonymous responses can be used in scientific studies. The results will be presented so that no single person can be recognized from the reports.
The PARADISE24fin is an evidence-based instrument for assessing the scope and severity of 24 common psychosocial difficulties. The questionnaire can be used as self-assessment or as a screening and follow-up tool in treatment.
The PARADISE24 covers relevant aspects of psychosocial functioning in one instrument, including difficulties regarding emotions, daily activities, self-regulation, social life, cognition, sleep, and pain.
PARADISE24 was developed in an EU-funded (FP7-Health) coordination action called Psychosocial Factors Relevant to Brain Disorders in Europe (PARADISE) in 2010–2013 as a tool for assessing common psychosocial difficulties among neurological and psychiatric disorders for clinical and research purposes.
The aim was to create one measure that can be used in the context of different disorders, based on the assumption of horizontal epidemiology of psychosocial difficulties, in other words, there are psychosocial difficulties that are commonly experienced in connection to several health conditions.
The International Classification of Functioning (ICF) provided the framework for the conceptualization of psychosocial difficulties and the PARADISE24 items have been ICF-linked. The PARADISE24 is in use in the treatment for SUDs as a self- administered questionnaire called PARADISE24fin.
More information and a list of publications in English: www.a-klinikka.fi/PARADISE24fin
Contact person Tuuli Pitkänen, tuuli.pitkanen@a-klinikka.fi