Psychometric examination of care quality measures in VA psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery centers (PRRCs).

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) developed Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Centers (PRRCs) to enhance recovery-oriented mental health services to large populations of veterans diagnosed with serious mental illness (e.g., psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder) and significant functional challenges. Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Centers were designed to support a rehabilitation framework to help veterans obtain needed skills and support to integrate into meaningful, self-determined community roles. This study used data collected as part of VHA's development and implementation of a national system to monitor PRRC performance with the purpose of evaluating the psychometric properties and latent structure of outcome measures used in PRRCs. Baseline self-report data from 5,086 veterans and their assigned PRRC staff providers were collected and reviewed. Exploratory factor analyses were used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Veteran-Rated Psychiatric Symptom Items (VR-PSI), the Clinician-Rated Psychiatric Symptom Items (CR-PSI), and the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness 10-item scale (ISMI-10). Four latent factors were identified for the VR-PSI and CR-PSI for the total sample, while the ISMI-10 was reduced to 8-items to assess self-stigma as a unitary measure. All measures demonstrated good psychometric properties. This study provides initial support for the latent factor structures and psychometric properties of measures used to assess national VHA PRRC performance. Implications and limitations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).