POM Basics: A Quick Overview of the Personal Outcome Measures®

The Personal Outcome Measures® (POM) is a person-centered discovery process, exploring the presence, importance, and achievement of outcomes, along with the supports that help people achieve those outcomes.
Through the Personal Outcome Measures®, people receiving services share what really matters to them, including their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Organizations can then use that information to better focus their services and improve the quality of people’s lives.
In a Personal Outcome Measures® interview, 21 indicators are used to gain valuable insight into the lives of youth, adults, and older adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and psychiatric disabilities. The interview covers a variety of topics, including choice, health, safety, social capital, relationships, rights, employment, and more. For decades, the internationally-recognized tool has been an effective data set for valid and reliable measurement of individual quality of life.
When people directly describe what they want out of their life, organizations can ensure that services are actually facilitating those outcomes. At an individual level, the Personal Outcome Measures® can be used to inform a truly person-centered plan, and track progress in implementing that plan. At an aggregate level, organizations can collect Personal Outcome Measures® data to analyze the impact of their supports, identify effective services, and highlight areas where additional work is needed.