The reliability and validity of the Finnish translation of the INSPIRE measure of staff support for personal recovery.

Purpose: Recovery orientation is a useful framework for mental health care. To advance the application of a recovery-oriented approach, psychometrically sound evaluation instruments are required. The INSPIRE measure, which includes the sub-scales of Support and Relationship, evaluates staff support for personal recovery. This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Finnish translation of the INSPIRE measure.

Material and methods: The data (N = 98) was gathered from service users of different mental health services. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the INSPIRE measure to examine the factorial validity and used Cronbach's alpha to assess the internal consistency of the identified factors. We also calculated floor and ceiling effects to evaluate the measure's sensitivity.

Results: The results indicated that the five-factor model for the Support sub-scale, as outlined by the CHIME framework of personal recovery, was not supported by the data. Instead, factor analysis indicated a two-factor model for the Support sub-scale. For the Relationship sub-scale, the original one-factor model was supported, and internal consistency was found to be good. However, we detected a ceiling effect in the items of the INSPIRE measure, which may compromise its reliability.

Conclusion: The original factor structure of the INSPIRE Support sub-scale could not be verified in the Finnish sample, although the internal consistency was satisfactory. The psychometric properties of the Finnish translation of the INSPIRE measure yielded mixed results, highlighting the need for further international studies to enhance the measure's feasibility and reliability.