Good Question: mobile prompts to
assist in interviewing for decisional
capacity. For full, free, backup resources, go to our website Good-
Question.org
Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill & Dr Elizabeth Scott-Gliba
ConboyHillScottGliba 2013
Page 2 Contents
Page 3 Before you start
Page 4 The interview plan
Page 5 Asking the questions
Page 6 How did it go the positives?
Page 7 How did it go the negatives?
Page 8 Your decision
Page 9 Hints and tips
Page 10 Requirements for decisional
capacity
Page 11 About and link to website
Page 3 Before you start
Put together or have to hand
1. Paper and pen
2. Information about what the
person was told of the
proposed procedure
3. Your list of headings to
prompt your probes
4. A place to sit that lets you
share your notes with your interviewee
Page 4 Structuring the interview
1. Relax your interviewee with
introductions and purpose whats this about?
2. Let them know youll be writing
things down as you go.
3. Set the scene: Were here to talk about a given incident or procedure.
4. Uninterrupted account:
a. Tell me everything you
remember about b. Its ok if you dont
remember
5. DONT INTERRUPT!
6. Structured probes: You said that , tell me a bit more about , try to see it in your minds eye
7. Minding the gaps in consent
interviews: I see your doctor mentioned ., tell me a bit about that.
8. Anything else?
9. Build a good ending: what
happens next and when.
Page 5 Asking the questions
Open non leading questions
Where.? What..? When..? Why..? How.? Tell me about.
Focused non leading questions
You said that.what was that about/how does that work?
You mentioned a ., tell me about that, whats it like, what does it do?
Page 6 How did it go the positives?
The positives: What was the evidence
that 1. the interviewee had a general
understanding of the decision?
2. they knew why they needed to
make the decision? 3. they understood in general the
consequences of making the
decision?
4. they understood the consequences of not making the
decision?
5. they understood what would
happen if they didn't agree to
proceed? 6. they understood the information
they recalled?
7. they understood about risk - both
agreeing and not agreeing to proceed?
8. they were able to weigh up the
information they had recalled?
For instance, how far did they put the elements of recall together to
make the bigger picture?
How did they demonstrate these things?
Roughly how much of the necessary
information did they recall?
What was the balance, for you, of
really important items recalled and less
important items recalled? For instance, did they seem to recall a few very
important items or a lot of less critical
items?
Page 7 How did it go? The
negatives: these make your
evidence unsafe
How many closed questions were
there?
How many closed leading questions
were there?
How many responses came from closed questions?
How many responses came from
leading questions?
How many responses came from closed
leading questions?
How often did you interrupt the interviewee?
How often did you give the interviewee
given additional information?
How often did you seem to break into a
silence?
Page 8 Your decision
Recall of important information:
little moderate most
Understanding:
little moderate most
Big picture:
little moderate most
Unsafe:
little moderate most
Page 9 Hints & tips
Ask open questions that dont have the answer in them and dont invite a yes no answer:
Why
What How
When
Where
Avoid
Closed Questions- if you can
answer Yes or No, its closed: o Was that the anaesthetic? o Did the social worker tell
you that?
o Can you tell me about ? Leading/misleading questions
where you know, or you think
you know, the answer. Most
closed questions are leading, if
not misleading.
Upgrading the answer where you substitute a better word. It might be completely wrong and it
makes the person feel wrong.
Teaching during the interview, it will interfere with your
interviewees own account. Alternatives and comparisons
Was it bigger/lighter/darker than ?
Stopping a leading question, just
leave the leading element unsaid:- So was that the time
when? Did you tell him about..? Was it the one in the..?
Page 10 Requirements for
decisional capacity
Mental Capacity Act 2005
Does the person have a general understanding of what decision they
need to make and why they need to
make it? [US: Ability to understand
relevant information]
Does the person have a general understanding of the likely
consequences of making, or not making, this decision? [US: Ability to
appreciate the nature of the situation
and possible consequences]
Is the person able to understand, retain, use and weigh up the
information relevant to this decision?
[US: Ability to manipulate information
rationally]
Can the person communicate their decision (by talking, using sign
language or any other means)? [US: Ability to communicate a choice]
Page 11 About
These pages summarise information on
our Good Question website so you
can use it on the hop in your day-to-
day work without need for or
distraction of a computer.
Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill has been a
consultant clinical psychologist for
adults with intellectual disabilities since 1988 and modified the cognitive
interview for consent after researching
it for her Master's degree
in forensic psychology. She has
assessed a wide range of people for capacity, and trained social workers,
carers, doctors, nurses, clinical
researchers, and lawyers in the
technique since 1999. Her publication list is here and LinkedIn
profile here.
Dr Elizabeth Scott-Gliba is a clinical psychologist who
has specialised in eating disorders,
mental health,
and intellectual disabilities and trained i
n the Good Question technique with Dr Conboy-Hill. She has since
provided training to many groups of
multi-disciplinary professionals. Her
LinkedIn profile is here.
http://good-question.org/
These prompts are also published on
Ether Books, a mobile app for IOS and
Android smartphones.
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