Objective The objective was to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Capacity for Health Promotion Survey designed to assess the practice of health promotion in the area of severe mental illness. Method Seven hundred and eighty-five health professionals in Queensland, Australia, completed the survey. A principal component analysis was used to assess the factor structure of the scale and investigations of internal consistency, interitem correlation and item-discriminant validity were conducted to establish the reliability and validity of the survey. Results The final survey is a 22-item scale comprising five subscales: Beliefs about Behavior Change, Intention to Promote Health, Health Promotion Skills, Effectiveness of Health Promotion and Health Promoting Norms. The survey demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency for the five subscales. Items were more strongly correlated within their own subscales than with other subscales, providing evidence of discriminant validity. Conclusion The Capacity for Health Promotion Survey is a psychometrically sound measure to assess the practice of health promotion in the area of severe mental illness.