Self-reported consumer satisfaction in mental health services: validation of a self-rating version of the UKU-Consumer Satisfaction Rating Scale.

The UKU-Consumer Satisfaction Rating Scale (UKU-ConSat) for the evaluation of consumer satisfaction in mental health services was constructed for assessments by independent professional interviewers. In the present study, a patient self-reported version of the scale is validated against the original version. The Spearman's rank correlation between single items, subscores and the total of the original scale and the self-assessment version was found to be good. Another main finding was an acceptable unidimensionality of the self-rating version of the UKU-Consumer Satisfaction rating scale, evaluated by a Mokken analysis. Furthermore, the internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha was found to be satisfactory. The results show that the patient self-rating version is psychometrically sound and therefore suitable for use in ordinary clinical practice. Being a part of a concept for continuous quality control and development in mental health services, the self-rating version of the UKU-ConSat promotes an open collaborative dialogue between professionals and users. A further advantage is that it saves professional time.