A Community Navigation Scale for Persons With Serious Mental Illnesses

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Rehabilitation Psychology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• The recovery paradigm in serious mental illness emphasizes community functioning, adjustment, and integration.
• Existing rating scales often focus on symptoms rather than recovery-oriented aspects of community life.
• There is a need for specialized instruments to measure diverse facets of community functioning in recovery-oriented research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Community Navigation Scale (CNS), designed to assess community functioning in individuals with serious mental illnesses.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the CNS, including its factor structure and reliability.
• To provide a tool that complements symptom-focused measures in recovery-oriented research.

Main Methods:

• The 21-item Community Navigation Scale was developed and administered to 340 participants with serious mental illnesses across two studies.
• Factor analysis was employed to identify underlying dimensions of the scale.
• Subscales were computed, and their internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and initial validity (correlations with Multnomast Community Ability Scale) were assessed.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis suggested three subscales: social and physical well-being (α=0.82), accessing external resources (α=0.80), and home and self-maintenance (α=0.73).
• All subscales demonstrated good internal consistency.
• Initial validity was supported by significant correlations between CNS subscales and the Multnomah Community Ability Scale.

Conclusions:

• The Community Navigation Scale effectively assesses key dimensions of community functioning for individuals with serious mental illnesses.
• The CNS can enhance research and clinical evaluations of recovery outcomes.
• Further research is recommended to fully establish the psychometric properties of the Community Navigation Scale.