Developing and Validating the OPOR Tool: A Recovery-Oriented Practices Measure Grounded in Service Users’ Perspectives

Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, the global burden of mental disorders remains high with no clear evidence of reduction. Over the last two decades, services have increasingly adopted recovery-oriented approaches that emphasise rights, hope, choice and social inclusion. Yet there is no consensus gold-standard to assess recovery-orientation at the service or staff level, and French-language instruments remain scarce—especially for tools focused on everyday practice. This study introduces OPOR (Outil de développement des Pratiques Orientées Rétablissement or Recovery-Oriented Practices Development Tool), a concise tool designed to assess recovery-oriented practices in routine settings. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, we will: (1) generate an initial item pool through focus groups with service users; (2) test clarity and usability in cognitive interviews; (3) evaluate relevance and completeness with users and experts; and (4) integrate feedback to finalise the instrument. By grounding content in lived experience and in Le Boutillier et al.’s (2011) framework, OPOR aims for conceptual robustness and accessibility. Establishing content validity will prepare for subsequent psychometric testing and for broader use to support user involvement and service transformation.