INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the quality of mental health services, patient-reported outcome measures have been used and, more recently, a measure of perception of change by users. This research aimed to make the transcultural adaptation to Brazil of the canadian Questionnaire of Perceived Changes, in order to obtain the Escala de Mudança Percebida (EMP), in two forms, pa-tient-scale and family-scale. METHOD: Twenty family members and 23 psychiatric patients from a mental health services in a median size town of Minas Gerais, Brazil, participated in this research. The scale was submitted to transcultural adaptation procedures: translation, backtranslation, analysis by a specialists committee and pilot study. The original scale is composed of 20 items which evaluate the users´ perceived change in four domains of patient's life. Response alternatives are disposed in a four point Likert scale. RESULTS: The scale was modified, including: a new application procedure by an interviewer, a balanced number of response alternatives with three options, the elimination of one item, a more simple elaboration of items, the use of examples and the inclusion of two open questions. The scales were easily understood by users. CONCLUSION: The two EMP scale forms are adapted to Brazilian context and have semantic equivalence to the original scale. They will be useful to evaluate the treatment results according to the users´ perception.
Patient-reported outcome; perception of change; mental health services; scale