Strengthening a mental illness management questionnaire for clinical associates through expert validation and cognitive interviews

Abstract

The supply and distribution of specialist mental health professionals is a significant barrier to providing access to mental health services in South Africa (SA). Clinical associates are a clinically trained cadre that could be utilised in mental health service provision in underserved areas. There is a lack of data on clinical associates’ training in mental health, their knowledge and confidence to manage mental health conditions, attitudes towards mental illness, and the mental health services that they currently provide in SA. The authors developed a questionnaire to assist us to obtain this information. With the exception of the attitudes component of the questionnaire, which used the validated 16-item Mental Illness Clinicians’ Attitudes version 4 scale (MICA v4), the questions were developed by the authors. Expert validation and cognitive interview processes were used in the final stages of development of the questionnaire. The purpose of this scientific letter is to outline the expert validation and cognitive interview processes followed and to reflect on their value in developing a mental illness management questionnaire for clinical associates.