Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale User Guide

Abstract

population. The monitoring of population mental well-being and the evaluation of interventions to promote positive mental health has therefore had to be undertaken using instruments designed primarily to detect mental illness. There are two problems with such an approach. First, mental illness measures tend to have significant ceiling effects in general population samples, meaning that people with only moderately good mental health can achieve the highest possible score. As a result the instrument cannot show improvements in mental health in the healthier portion of the population distribution. Second, participants who are involved in the evaluation of interventions to promote mental health may develop the erroneous impression that the interventions are designed only to help people with mental health problems and in this way the evaluation can affect the impact of interventions. To overcome these problems NHS Health Scotland commissioned the development of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) as part of the Mental Health Indicators Programme.2 This manual is for those who want to use WEMWBS for monitoring and research purposes as well as for evaluations. Those who require information on what to consider for evaluation are referred to the NHS Health Scotland evaluation guides in the first instance (www.healthscotland.com/mental-health- publications.aspx). Ceiling