Empowerment in people with a mental illness: reliability and validity of the Swedish version of an empowerment scale

Abstract

Empowerment has become a widespread concept in various social policy contexts referring to different marginalized groups. Empowerment has also been focused within the mental health field although little empirical research exists. The aim of the present study was to investigate internal consistency and construct validity of the Swedish version of an empowerment scale developed for people with a mental illness, Making Decisions. Ninety-two persons were subject to an interview also comprising assessments of quality of life, needs for care, psychiatric symptoms, psychosocial functioning, aspects of the social network, rejection experiences and attitudes of devaluation/discrimination towards people with mental illness. The results showed that the overall scale and the subscales had a good internal consistency, except for the subscale power-powerlessness. A factor analysis revealed two superordinate factors, self-esteem and activism and community and power, with a satisfactory internal consistency. These two factors showed a good construct validity with expected associations to validation measures. Stigma was most markedly associated with self-esteem and activism, and a higher level of education was most strongly associated with community and power. In conclusion, the Swedish version Making Decisions may well be used in further studies of empowerment among people with a mental illness.

Outcomes of a Freedom of Choice Reform in Community Mental Health Day Center Services

“…It has been found to have good internal consistency and construct validity for the total scale, but for most subscales the internal consistency was lower than acceptable (Hansson & Bjorkman, 2005). Therefore, only the total score was used for the present study.…”

The Effects of Patient Empowerment Scale in Chronic Diseases

“…This database offered information from 2005 up to today, including 118 studies and free full texts about researches on human species and mixed studies, all presented in English. Of the 118 studies, 74 did not meet the inclusion criteria (Sjoblade et al 2008) (Chibbend et al 2010Haywood et al, 2006;Blakeman et al, 2011;Homko et al, 2007;Hansson & Bjorkman, 2005;Palloni et al, 2007;Machin et al, 2011). Of the 74 studies the 30 articles did not included all the criteria of our study, specifically, there was not a clearly specification according to chronic diseases and patient empowerment.…”

“…Examples of these are self-efficacy, self-esteem, decision making and quality of life (Hansson & Bjorkman, 2005;Palloni et al, 2007;Machin et al, 2011;Lehman, 1983). There was also a restriction of language.…”

“…The scale presented 20 elements in five points of gradation from never to always and measured the Venice domination of a patient, the planning, the resolution of the problems and the continuous support. The empowerment of patients who suffer from a chronic disease, is one of vital importance for them, since it helps them to direct and face their disease, reducing at the same time the negative dimension of their stress (distress) (Hansson & Bjorkman, 2005). The feeling of control can contribute not only in the entanglement of patients for the management of their disease, but it can also help for decision-making, with the concern of treatment choices (Department of Health, 2004).…”

“…The total number of studies was 27. These 27 articles were classified in 14 studies according to empowerment (Wahlin, 2006), in 4 studies according to self-efficacy (Lorig et al, 2006), in 2 studies according to self-esteem (Hansson & Bjorkman, 2005), in 4studies according to decision making (Machin et al, 2011) and in 3 studies according to quality of life (Lehman, 1983).…”