Design and validation of a scale of core components of community interventions in mental health

• Published in: The International journal of health planning and management Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 36 - 47
• Main Authors: Agudelo‐Hernández, Felipe, Rojas‐Andrade, Rodrigo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2024
• Subjects: Community; Community involvement; community networks; Community participation; Components; Coping strategies; Cronbach's alpha; Discriminant analysis; Emotion recognition; Emotions; Exploratory factor analysis; Factor analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Health planning; Health services; Identity; implementation sciences; Intervention; Leadership; Measures; Mental Health; Mental health services; psychosocial support systems; Reproducibility of Results; self‐help group; social interaction; Social networks; Social organization; Strengthening; Support groups; Surveys and Questionnaires; Two dimensional analysis; validation study; community networks; implementation sciences; psychosocial support systems; mental health; social interaction; validation study; self-help group
• ISSN: 0749-6753; 1099-1751
• DOI: 10.1002/hpm.3711

Aims To develop and validate an instrument to identify the core components of community strategies for mental health, especially mutual aid groups: The Mutual Aid Scale . Methods 135 community strategies leaders participated in the study. The core components are active agency, coping strategies, recognition, and management of emotions, problem‐solving strategies, supportive interaction, trust, self‐identity construction, and strengthening of social networks. With these components a scale was designed. Content validity was carried out in addition to an exploratory factor analysis. Results Two dimensions resulted, strengthening of agency capacity and Coping strategies, and the internal consistency of both factors was acceptable, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.722 and 0.727, respectively. The Kaiser‐Meyer‐Olkin (KMO) statistic was used with a score of 0.831 and the Barlett Sphericity Test, with a significant value of 265.175. Conclusion This scale identifies the components of community interventions for mental health and can contribute to a better implementation of these strategies. It also articulates autonomous community processes with strategies developed in health services. Highlights The community interventions have few implementation instruments. The core components of community interventions in mental health are provided. A scale is proposed to measure these interventions. The process of design and validation of the instrument is shown, which is provided in this manuscript.