Adapting the Helpful Responses Questionnaire to Assess Communication Skills Involved in Delivering Contingency Management: Preliminary Psychometrics

•Via pencil/paper format, the HRQ-CM assesses clinician skill with CM interventions.•Preliminary psychometric properties were examined in an implementation/effectiveness trial.•Scoring reliability, internal consistency, and concurrent/predictive validity were demonstrated.•Test–retest reliability and sensitivity to effects of training were also documented.•A provisional clinician competency benchmark is proposed for the instrument.

A paper/pencil instrument, adapted from Miller and colleagues’ (1991) Helpful Responses Questionnaire (HRQ), was developed to assess clinician skill with core communicative aspects involved in delivering contingency management (CM). The instrument presents a single vignette consisting of six points of client dialogue to which respondents write ‘what they would say next.’ In the context of an implementation/effectiveness hybrid trial, 19 staff clinicians at an opiate treatment program completed serial training outcome assessments before, following, and three months after CM training. Assessments included this adaptation of the HRQ, a multiple-choice CM knowledge test, and a recorded standardized patient encounter scored for CM skillfulness. Study results reveal promising psychometric properties for the instrument, including strong scoring reliability, internal consistency, concurrent and predictive validity, test–retest reliability and sensitivity to training effects. These preliminary findings suggest the instrument is a viable, practical method to assess clinician skill in communicative aspects of CM delivery.