Developing scales for apps together - youth and municipal case worker perspectives

• Main Authors: Thomas Mackrill, Frank Ebsen, Helle Antczak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Indiana University School of Social Work 2015-07-01
• Series: Advances in Social Work
• Subjects: Social work, apps, innovation, scales, youth, action research
• Online Access: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/view/18292
• ISSN: 1527-8565; 2331-4125

This article reports the initial findings of a Danish action research project aiming to develop a digital tool that young persons could use to inform their municipal case workers about their wellbeing. The project vision was an integrated system with a smartphone interface for young persons, and a web interface for case workers, whereby both parties could track how the young persons were doing. Three meetings were held between researchers, software developers, young persons and their case workers. The young persons rejected self-monitoring on a normative scale. They rejected a scale proposed by case workers that encouraged them to focus on a positive future, favoring a scale which enabled them to focus on their wellbeing being low. The young persons and case workers disagreed about how data regarding change should be presented. Case workers preferred a graph that highlighted risk, where young persons favored a graph that emphasized positive change.