Effective Interventions Unit: Measuring staff attitudes to people with drug problems: The development of a tool
SUMMARY
The aims of this study were:
to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new instrument, the Drug and Drug Problems Perceptions Questionnaire (DDPPQ), which was designed to measure mental health professionals' attitudes to working with drug users
to pilot a variation of the DDPPQ designed to assess the attitudes of practitioners to individuals who have co-existing mental health and substance misuse problems. This second instrument was the Comorbidity Problems Perceptions Questionnaire (CMPPQ).
The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, an existing instrument, called the Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perceptions Questionnaire (AAPPQ, Appendix 1) was modified to form the DDPPQ. Analysis was then undertaken to determine the reliability and validity of the DDPPQ. In the second stage, the CMPPQ was developed and piloted to assess its content validity.
Further details of the development and validation of both tools are given in the full report of the study, which is available from the Effective Interventions Unit upon request.