Kuwait-Mental Illness Disability Scale (K-MIDS): A Proposal

Background It is widely agreed that the mentally ill constitute a sizeable chunk of the disabled population not only for those afflicted but also for their caregivers alike. Objective To assess the degree of disability with subsequent medico-legal ramifications, clinicians largely rely on generic clinical impressions and short brief interviews that are by no means bias-free lacking in standardization and objectivity. Methods To this end, authors, herein, draft, the K-MIDS or the Kuwait-Mental Illness Disability Scale. Results Baseline Requirements and Scoring System of K-MIDS are devised largely drawing on authors’ vast clinical expertise in this area. Conclusions The assessment of functional disability related to serious mental illness remains an unmet need in the Gulf region where disability allowance is currently based on generic clinical impressions, brief interviews and collateral input. K-MIDS is intended to be a step moving forward. Psychometric properties are due second.