Fidelity in Mental Health Services: Clinical Strategies for Implementing Resource Groups

Abstract

We investigated whether or not people working in the fields of psychiatry and social work who do not have experience in assessing the fidelity of resource group assertive community treatment could use a new manual for the Clinical Strategies Implementation Scale–Revised (CSI–R) in a reliable and valid fashion. Participants were 4 men and 17 women who were caregivers recruited from psychiatric and social-work clinics in Middle Sweden. The study was conducted using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. The caregivers were asked to rate 2 fictional cases individually and thereafter discuss their assessments in focus groups. Results indicated acceptable values for homogeneity, criterion validity, and divergent validity. We concluded that people working in the fields of psychiatry and social work who are inexperienced in using the CSI-R can use it in a reliable and valid way with the help of the new manual, and that the procedure used to conduct the study can be used as a model for a brief educational program or seminar.