The Capabilities Questionnaire for the Community Mental Health Context (CQ-CMH): A measure inspired by the capabilities approach and constructed through consumer-researcher collaboration

Objective: The involvement of people with psychiatric disabilities in research and service evaluation has traditionally been rare, especially in the construction of outcome measures. This study documents a collaborative process with consumers from 2 Portuguese community mental health services in the construction of the Capabilities Questionnaire for the Community Mental Health context (CQ-CMH). The measure is inspired by Nussbaum’s capabilities approach and aims to measure consumers’ capabilities when supported by the community mental health services. Method: Focus groups with 50 consumers from 2 programs generated data about their gains from and goals for participation in the programs. A Steering Committee—comprising 3 consumers and 2 researchers—analyzed the data, generated a list of items, sorted them according to Nussbaum’s list of capabilities, and developed a rating scale. To check face validity, the questionnaire was tested with 15 consumers. Results: The collaborative process led to the transformation of traditional research roles, the promotion of empowerment to participants, the ecological validity of the results, and a cultural adaptation of Nussbaum’s list to the context of the study. The resulting CQ-CMH is composed of 104 items organized by 10 capabilities, and 1 open-ended question about service improvements. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: The capabilities approach and the collaborative process undertaken both support the exercise of choice and control by people with psychiatric disabilities. The capabilities measure—constructed by consumers— may be used as an outcome measure in service evaluation. The questionnaire will undergo further testing of its validity and psychometric qualities.