In urban inner city areas, health professionals meet many individuals from diverse cultural groups that they need to understand, assess and treat effectively. This article describes the concept, development and application of a new assessment tool (the Barts Explanatory Model Inventory) that aims to help health professionals determine illness perceptions and treatment preferences of distress. The article describes the tool's background in theories of illness perception, gives a brief review of currently available instruments and describes the systematic development of this new instrument. Results from the first application are discussed to determine benefits and weaknesses of the new tool.
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