A Community Navigation Scale for Persons With Serious Mental Illnesses

The recovery paradigm in the context of serious mental illnesses pertains to several characteristics of community functioning, adjustment, and integration, among other constructs. Additional rating scales would be beneficial for measuring various facets of community functioning for research that is recovery oriented as opposed to symptom focused. The Community Navigation Scale was developed as part of the Opening Doors to Recovery project to address several aspects of navigating community resources.

After item development, the 21-item Community Navigation Scale was used across two studies with 340 participants who had serious mental illnesses. Factor analysis revealed three potential factors, and subscales were computed.

The social and physical well-being subscale (seven items, Cronbach's α=0.82) addressed community involvement, volunteering, finding enjoyable activities, and engaging in positive health behaviors. The accessing external resources subscale (nine items, Cronbach's α=0.80) tapped one's ability to obtain needed resources, ranging from medications to housing and from small appliances to classes in the community. The home and self-maintenance subscale (five items, Cronbach's α=0.73) measured abilities around shopping, cooking, cell phone use, house cleaning, and personal grooming and hygiene. Initial validity of the subscales was suggested through correlations with the Multnomah Community Ability Scale (r=0.65, 0.55, and 0.41 for social and physical well-being, accessing external resources, and home and self-maintenance, respectively).

The Community Navigation Scale assesses dimensions of community functioning among persons with serious mental illnesses and may add to the array of research and clinical measures pertinent to recovery outcomes. Additional research on its psychometric properties is warranted.