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- Properties of the portuguese version of the empowerment scale with mental health organization usersPublication . Monteiro, Maria Fátima Jorge; Ornelas, JoséBackground: This study examines the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Empowerment Scale (ES) to be used in the community/psychosocial mental health field. Authors also reviewed the properties of the development and cross-cultural adaptation of the ES. Because mental health services are required to encourage empowerment and recovery-oriented interventions, adequate empowerment-oriented outcome measures are needed to evaluate services and study interventions across countries. Methods: The current research was part of a larger research project with 213 participants. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to observe the ES’s construct-related validity, and a reliability analysis for internal consistency. The ES concurrent validity with the recovery and psychiatric symptoms measures was also assessed using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results: The CFA supported the five-factor configuration for the refined model of measure as satisfactory. The Portuguese version of the ES presented an overall satisfactory reliability (α = .79) and was positively correlated with personal recovery (r = .71) and inversely with psychiatric symptoms (r = −.22). Conclusions: The overall scale was considered reliable and valid to be used by Portuguese researchers and practitioners to evaluate empowering interventions in mental health services. Furthermore, in the effort to increase ES construct-related validity, this article suggests further improvements to enhance the empowerment measure.
- What transformation? A qualitative study of empowering settings and community mental health organizationsPublication . Monteiro, Maria Fátima Jorge; Aguiar, Rita; Sacchetto, Beatrice; Moniz, Maria João Vargas; Ornelas, JoséThis article is based on empowering settings research and has a two-fold objective: to propose an adaptation of the empowering community settings framework to community mental health organizations practice to foster recovery and community integration; and to discuss how the adapted framework is a relevant tool to challenge community mental health transformation at multiple levels of analysis. The current study was anchored in a larger qualitative research project. It used a case study approach, with 8 in-depth interviews with diverse participants from one community mental health organization. The adapted model proved useful to guide transformational practice in community mental health programs and for evaluation of organizational empowerment and multilevel community-oriented interventions. Suggestions and implications for future research are also presented.
- “What’s wrong with the seed?” A comparative examination of an empowering community-centered approach to recovery in community mental healthPublication . Monteiro, Maria Fátima Jorge; Ornelas, JoséThis cross-sectional group comparison aimed to examine whether personal empowerment, recovery and community integration were associated with the individual's participation in an empowering community-centered model of intervention. Ninety-three participants from an empowering community-centered community mental health organization were compared with a matched group of individuals from standard interventions of four equivalent organizations. Results showed that participants taking advantage of the empowering community-centered approach were more involved in high recovery-oriented programs; and attained higher levels of personal goals and hope, empowerment, and of community integration. An involvement in high recovery-oriented programs (supported employment or independent housing) revealed improved outcomes for the individual. In conclusion, the findings suggested a transformative impact of the empowering community-centered model both at the individual and the program level by altering the resource accessibility and social conditions for people who experience mental illness. The implications of findings for transforming community mental health practice are discussed in detail.