The Staff Views About Assessing Voices Questionnaire: Piloting a Novel Socratic Method of Evaluating and Training Multidisciplinary Staff's Cognitive Assessment of Patients' Distressing Voices

Cognitive features of auditory hallucinations (voices) have important clinical significance and their assessment is vital for cognitive behavior therapy to be more widely deployed by multidisciplinary staff. Using a new Socratic instrument—The Staff Views About Assessing Voices Questionnaire (SVAVQ)—we surveyed a community inpatient rehabilitation multidisciplinary workforce's (N = 50) assessment and attitude toward asking cognitive questions about patients' voices. We found that there were many clinically important gaps in what staff asked about in relation to cognitive features of voices. We identified a range of beliefs the staff hold that may prevent assessment of voice cognitive features. However, after attending the Socratic SVAVQ interview, 84% of staff said they planned to ask patients more questions about cognitive features of patients' voices. Research could now test if other psychosis services neglect the assessment of important cognitive features of patients' voices and if staff Socratic questioning improves their cognitive assessments.