C.O.R.E. stands for Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation.

In very simple terms it measures (from ‘Not at all’, to ‘Most or all of the time’) how a client has felt over the last week:

1. I have felt tense, anxious or nervous
2. I have felt I have someone to turn to for support when needed
3. I have felt able to cope when things go wrong
4. Talking to people has felt too much for me
5. I have felt panic or terror
6. I made plans to end my life
7. I have had difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep
8. I have felt despairing or hopeless
9. I have felt unhappy
10. Unwanted images or memories have been distressing me

The clinical score from the ten questions (6xP, 3xF, 1xR) in CORE is interpreted as follows:

0-5 Healthy
6-10 Low level problems
11-15 Mild psychological distress
16-20 Moderate distress
21-25 Moderately severe
26-40 Severe psychological distress

…the aspiration of this short questionnaire meant to “enable measurement of depression while retaining coverage of general psychological distress”.

A larger questionnaire (CORE-OM 34) – which includes CORE-10 – breaks down one’s health into four key areas:

W – Wellbeing (4)
P – Problems and symptoms (12)
F – Functioning (12)
R – Risk (6)

From this a wider quantitative assessment is gleaned.