Measuring professional stigma towards patients with a forensic mental health status: protocol for a Delphi consensus study on the design of a questionnaire

INTRODUCTION: Negative attitudes towards individuals with a mental illness and/or criminal background are widely studied, but empirical interest in the attitudes towards patients with a forensic mental health status is lacking. Negative attitudes among mental healthcare (MHC) professionals can have a significant impact on treatment outcomes and hence, affect patients’ rehabilitation. This study will elaborate an instrument to assess stigmatising attitudes among community MHC professionals towards patients with a forensic mental health status. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The instrument will be developed by means of a Delphi study and depart from pre-existing instruments that assess public and professional stigma towards individuals with a mental illness and/or criminal background. Relevant instruments were identified through a targeted literature review. A longlist of items has been selected for the Delphi survey. Five expert panels (ie, academic experience in stigma or forensic MHC, clinical experience in community or forensic MHC or patient experience in forensic and community MHC) will be asked to score the relevance of each item on a 7-point Likert scale and to agree on the wording (yes/no). Participants will be provided with the option to suggest additional items or alternative wording. Adapted Delphi methodology will be applied with an expectation of at least three rounds to achieve consensus: ≥60% of the participants of at least four of five expert panels rank the item in the top three (inclusion) or bottom three (exclusion). Items will be reworded for a consecutive round based on a ‘yes minus no’ score and participants’ suggestions. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has been approved by the ethics committee of Fundación Sant Joan de Déu. Dissemination of results will be through peer-reviewed publications, presentations and (inter-)national academic conferences. A summary of the results will be shared with the participants and key persons in community and forensic MHC.