Abstract
BACKGROUND: Supporting voice hearers to explore and make meaning of their voice-hearing experiences can be helpful, but many mental health workers lack confidence or do not feel they have the skills required to do this. Although more is needed, some resources and training are available to assist workers in this area. To date, there are no suitable measures to evaluate the impact of these resources and training. Therefore, Supporting Voice Hearers Measure (SVHM) was developed. SVHM is a 23-item scale designed to evaluate mental health workers' beliefs, attitudes, confidence and behaviours related to working with voice hearers. AIMS: To describe the development and testing of the SVHM. METHOD: Measurement properties explored included rating scale validity, unidimensionality, reliability, construct validity and person-fit statistics. Additionally, evaluations of concurrent validity, responsiveness and time taken to complete SVHM were completed. RESULTS: A total of 548 completions of SVHM were included in the analysis. One item was interfering with measurement precision and was subsequently removed. The resultant 22-item measure demonstrated generally good measurement properties according to the quality criteria set. It demonstrated good concurrent reliability with confidence in working with voice hearers (r = 0.49, p < 0.001), strong responsiveness and evidence of feasibility, with a median time for completion of 3 min 39 s. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that SVHM is a promising measure of mental health workers' beliefs, attitudes, confidence and behaviours related to working with voice hearers. Future research should explore how changes in mental health workers' beliefs, attitudes, confidence and behaviours impact the experiences and outcomes achieved by the voice hearers they are working with.