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'Quality of life' assessment in critical context
- Author:
- AGER Alastair
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 15(4), December 2002, pp.369-376.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This paper argues that shifts in the focus of human services - and, in particular, what counts as a successful outcome of such provision - reflect wider societal trends in values and concerns. The current ascendance of 'quality of life' (QoL) as a metric of service outcome is noted. The core functions of QoL assessments are identified and related to underlying qualities reflected in the majority of QoL assessments: comprehensiveness, context independence and the capability to reflect personal subjectivity. The attractiveness of these qualities is linked to current trends in philosophical thought, underpinning contemporary culture and social policy. It is proposed that the pre-eminence of QoL assessment as an approach to service planning and evaluation reflects the capacity of the QoL concept to serve as a basis for transparent resource allocation between competing priorities for restricted public spending.