The Achieved Capabilities Questionnaire for Community Mental Health (ACQ‐CMH): A consumer‐based measure for the evaluation of community mental health interventions

The capabilities approach offers a multidimensional, ecological, and agent‐centered framework that may inspire models of intervention and evaluation. A growing number of measures grounded on the capabilities approach for outcome measurement are appearing. Regarding community mental health, new consumer‐valued measures—constructed in collaboration with consumers—are here considered crucial for a transformative shift. Meanwhile, new measurements need to provide psychometric evidence to enable proper choice and application. The Achieved Capabilities Questionnaire for Community Mental Health (ACQ‐CMH) was developed in collaboration with consumers of community mental health services. It aims to assess consumers' capabilities achieved through program support. The present paper shows advancements in the measure validation through a confirmatory factor analysis within a sample of community mental health consumers (N = 225). Reliability and construct‐related validity were also observed. A structural solution composed of five factors and 43 items revealed a better model fit than that obtained in a previous exploratory study. Findings support the reliability, sensibility, and both convergent and discriminant validity of using the ACQ‐CMH in the evaluation of community mental health interventions. The ACQ‐CMH offers a consumer‐valued framework with specific dimensions and indicators of capabilities for use in a routine service evaluation setting.