To develop a toolkit to assess the quality of institutionalised care, in both hospital and community settings, for individuals with long-term mental illness.

The toolkit was developed by the UK research teams. Items were included to assess the six domains (Living Environment; Therapeutic Environment; Treatments and Interventions; Self-management and Autonomy; Social Policy, Citizenship and Advocacy; Clinical Governance) and three cross-cutting themes (Social Inclusion; Human Rights; Recovery-based Model) which emerged from the international literature review, Delphi exercises and cross-country care standards. Following translation and piloting in each country, the toolkit was refined and tested for reliability in 20 units in each country (a total of 200 units).

Test-retest reliability was assessed using intra-class correlations and Cohen’s Kappa coefficients. Factors with low reliability or extreme response biases were dropped. Remaining items were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis to test the allocation of items to domains and cross-cutting themes and improve their internal consistency. Correlations between domains were explored to determine whether or not domains could be combined.

In the next phase of the study,the toolkit domain ratings will be analysed for associations with standardised assessments of service users’ quality of life, autonomy and markers of recovery to investigate whether the toolkit can provide a proxy measurement of the institution’s promotion of human rights and recovery.