Validation of a Vietnamese Mental Health Recovery Scale for Vietnamese refugees

Recovery approaches promote a view of health and wellness that is defined by service users’ perspectives rather than professional opinion. Though a growing number of measures for recovery are now available in the English language, a validated scale for recovery among the Vietnamese people is lacking. Two focus groups with Vietnamese refugees from a London-based charity were interviewed to generate and modify content items from previous recovery scales. An expert panel of seven professionals then selected a final set of questionnaire items for a Vietnamese Mental Health Recovery Scale (VRS). To validate this instrument, forty-eight Vietnamese refugees completed the VRS in addition to self-reported wellbeing and mental health difficulties. They also received professional assessments of general life functioning. A final 15-item VRS demonstrated good reliability and concurrent validity. Recovery processes measured include meaningful social roles and interactions, self-management of problems, and spiritual attitudes and living. Its suitability to support recovery-oriented community programmes are discussed. © 2017, Springer India Pvt. Ltd.