Call for input – Recovery Index Questionnaire
Mental Health Europe · University of Barcelona · League for Mental Health Slovakia
The Recovery and RightsOrientation of Services Scale
How do we know whether a mental health service truly supports recovery, respects people’s rights and puts the people who use it in charge of their own lives? Until now, there has been no shared, tested way to answer that question across Europe.
Together with the University of Barcelona and the League for Mental Health Slovakia, Mental Health Europe has developed the Mental Health Europe Recovery and Rights Orientation of Services Scale (MHEROSS): a new tool to help services, organisations, researchers, policymakers and advocates understand how well mental health and community services promote recovery, dignity, participation and human rights.
The scale will be open source and free for anyone to use. Before it can be rolled out, it needs to be tested with a large and diverse group of people. That is where you come in.
A word from our Director
A shared measure for rights-based care
We want mental health services across Europe to support recovery and respect human rights. To understand how well different services do this, we need a shared way of measuring progress. This scale brings these principles together in one practical framework, helping services identify where change is needed, learn from each other and track progress over time.
It has been developed through co-creation with people with lived experience and others involved in mental health support, it focuses on choice, dignity, belonging and control over own futures. Your participation will help us test whether it works across different languages and national contexts, laying the groundwork for a meaningful European measure.
Kadri Soova
Director, Mental Health Europe
Call for validation · Now open
Help us test the scale
We are inviting people from across Europe and beyond to take part in the validation of MHEROSS. Think of it as a stress test: by answering the questionnaire, you help us check that the scale measures what it is meant to measure, in many languages and from many different perspectives.
Have you ever used mental health services? Do you support someone who has? Do you work in mental health, social care, peer support or community services? If so, we would love to hear from you.
What the scale looks at
MHEROSS assesses how well mental health and community services promote:
Recovery and hope
Respect and dignity
Participation and choice
Community inclusion
Human rights
Self-determination and empowerment
Who can take part
People who use or have used services
Anyone who uses, or has used, mental health services.
Families, friends and carers
Family members, friends, carers and others in a person’s support network.
People who work in services
Peer workers, practitioners, service providers and mental health professionals.
We welcome everyone with lived and living experience, including people who have had negative experiences of services. Whatever your perspective, your experience matters.
The survey has been developed in English and translations were done using a combination of machine translation and human and expert review. This testing phase will help us assess their clarity and consistency across languages.
Please share the survey in your language so we can reach enough people to test every language version.
What you need to do
Simply complete a short online questionnaire.
10–15
minutes to complete
27
languages available
100%
online
Anonymous
and GDPR compliant
Voluntary
take part only if you want to
Take the survey
Share your honest views and experiences. There are no right or wrong answers.
Deadline: 31 December 2026
Why it matters
Before a scale can be used in research, service evaluation, policy or quality improvement, it must be tested with a large and diverse group of people. By taking part, you will help us:
- Develop a robust international measure of recovery-oriented services
- Promote human rights in mental health care
- Improve mental health and community support services
- Make sure the voices of people who use or have used services, their families, peers and professionals are heard
- Build evidence for more inclusive, person-centred practice
Please share
The more people take part, the stronger and more useful the final scale will be. We would be very grateful if you could pass this invitation on to:
- Mental health organisations
- People who use or have used mental health services, and survivor groups
- Family and carer networks
- Peer support initiatives
- Professional associations
- Community organisations
- Friends and colleagues
2027
Coming soon
The questionnaires
Once validation is complete, the final version of the scale will be released in full in 2027, as open-source questionnaires that services and organisations can use to monitor how recovery- and rights-oriented their practice is.
Have questions? Contact Kadri Soova at k.soova@mentalhealtheurope.org
MHEROSS is developed by the University of Barcelona, Mental Health Europe and the League for Mental Health Slovakia.
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