Callaghan, Patrick

International and national health policy seeks to increase service user and carer involvement in mental health care planning, but suitable user-centred tools to assess the success of these initiatives are not yet available. The current study describes the development of a new reliable and valid, interval-scaled service-user and carer reported outcome measure for quantifying user/carer involvement in mental health care planning. Psychometric development reduced a 70-item item bank to a short form questionnaire using a combination of Classical Test, Mokken and Rasch Analyses.

Integrated care pathways (ICPs) are prearranged processes of care that are being increasingly used to deliver mental health services. The literature to date reveals relatively little about service user and carer experience in relation to their use. This study was completed as part of case study research and focused on the experiences of service users and carers gathered using focus groups, as a unit of analysis.