6.4: Assessing Self-Care
- Page ID
- 247353
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Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Assessment is an important part of wellness. (Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels.)
It isn’t self-care that is assessed as much as overall wellness. By determining wellness in the various areas of life it can be determined what self-care interventions might be most effective in improving wellness in any given area.
Assessing wellness is accomplished by considering the level of functioning in each area. It would be unrealistic to have an expectation that any one individual would be functioning optimally in every area of their lives at all times, but periodically taking a look at functioning in the various areas of wellness gives us an opportunity to consider which areas might need our attention and informs us in determining the type and frequency of self-care that might be beneficial to improve our performance in our lives.
Bart et al. (2018) conducted a meta-analysis on existing literature to determine reliability and validity of instruments being used to measure wellness, an accurate definition of wellness, and the efficacy of the utilization of wellness assessments in clinical practice. Their findings suggest “the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) 2004 definition conceptualizes wellness best as the optimal state of health for individuals and groups, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, with two focal concerns: 1) the realization of the fullest potential of an individual physically, psychologically, socially, spiritually, and economically, and 2) the fulfillment of each individual’s role expectations in the family, community, place of worship, workplace, and other settings.”
They also found the Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle (WEL), Five-factor WEL (5F-Wel), Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS), The Optimal Living Profile (OLP), and The Body-Mind-Spirit Wellness Behavior and Characteristic Inventory (BMS-WBCI) all showed strong reliability; however, they may not give a complete picture of the client’s needs requiring additional assessment and subjective evaluation (Bart et al., 2018).
WEL – very abbreviated pdf version for free
- Have you assessed a client for self-care? How accurate was the assessment? Was it helpful for the client to see where they are with regards to self-care? In what way?
- Have you assessed yourself for self-care? How accurate was the assessment? Was it helpful for you to see where you are with regards to self-care? In what way?
These reflection questions are also available as a PDF download: Assessing Self-care