Community living assessment for persons with severe and persistent mental illness

Psychiatric rehabilitation has been hampered by the absence of reliable and valid instruments to assess functional skills of persons with severe and persistent mental illness. This article describes the development of the Community Living Assessment Scale (CLAS), which was designed specifically to assess daily living skills of those with mental illness who live in community residences. The scale was found to have good test‐retest, split‐half, and interrater reliability. Comparison of clients with nonclients revealed significant differences on eight of nine scales. Scale scores were not found to be predictive of type of residential placement; however, many of the scales correlated significantly with perceived level of independence and general well‐being 2 years after assessment. The CLAS is recommended as an assessment instrument for use in psychiatric rehabilitation programs and for research with populations with severe and persistent mental illness.