Giovanni Salvi

Applications and usefulness of routine measurement of patients satisfaction with community-based mental health care

Objective:  This study was conducted within the framework of the South‐Verona Outcome Project (SVOP) in a sample of patients, with the full spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses, who are attending the South‐Verona Community‐based Mental Health Service (CMHS). It aims to exemplify some applications of routine measurements of service satisfaction and specifically: i) identify strengths and weaknesses, in the patients’ perspectives, of a ‘real world’ service; ii) monitor whether this specific service provides satisfactory care over 3 years and iii) identify if there are any patients’ characteristics that might be associated with service dissatisfaction.

Satisfaction with community and hospital-based emergency services amongst severely mentally ill service users

ObjectiveThis study compares the satisfaction with emergency interventions among severely mentally ill (SMI) service users of a community-based and a hospital-based mental health service (South-Verona, Italy and Nunhead, South-London, UK).MethodsA measurement of the satisfaction with psychiatric emergency services was conducted among all those users in the two catchment areas who, in a 1-year period: (1) had at least two contacts with the service; (2) had a diagnosis of psychosis according to ICD10; (3) had not been living in hospital or sheltered apartment for most of the time. These users completed seven items belonging to the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS) regarding their satisfaction with crisis response during and out of office hours and their satisfaction with the different interventions, which may be provided during emergencies, such as consultation for the user, consultation for the relative, day-centre attendance, informal and compulsory admission.ResultsUsers in South-Verona were generally more satisfied with emergency interventions. The main differences between the two samples were due to contacts outside the hospital setting, whilst satisfaction scores for informal admission were similar. The number of users who did not receive, but would have liked, different types of emergency intervention was smaller in South-Verona than in Nunhead. In South-Verona, users wishes mainly concerned consultation for the relatives during emergencies; in the Nunhead sample, the most requested types of intervention were consultation for the user and the possibility of day-centre attendance during crisis.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that users of a service with a well developed community-oriented approach and with crisis intervention outside the hospital setting are more satisfied of the emergency interventions than users of a mental health service relying mostly on hospital facilities during emergencies.

Outcome of patients dropping out from community-based mental health care: a 6-year multiwave follow-up study.

Objective:  To test three hypotheses: i) is dropping out of community mental health care due to dissatisfaction? ii) Do those who appropriately interrupt mental health care need any more help? iii) Do those who need treatment continue to receive it?

Predictors of changes in needs for care in patients receiving community psychiatric treatment: a 4-year follow-up study

Objective:  This study aimed to investigate changes and predictors of change in needs for care, as assessed by both patients and mental health professionals, in a sample of subjects receiving community‐based psychiatric care.

Systematic review of the role of service users as researchers in mental health studies

AIMS Service user involvement in mental health service development and research is becoming more common in countries like the UK, USA and Canada. This systematic review of the international scientific literature has been carried out to assess the stage of development of mental health service users involvement in research. METHOD Systematic review of any research project actively involving service users in any part of the research process. RESULTS Thirty-five studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Nine studies used quantitative techniques, 24 used qualitative techniques and two studies used both quantitative and qualitative techniques. While three studies were user-led, in three other studies the users were simply consulted but did not have any active role in the research. The remaining 29 studies were based on a collaboration between service users and professional researchers. CONCLUSIONS The involvement of mental health service users in the research process is feasible both in quantitative and qualitative research studies. The involvement of service users in research has a number of benefits; such research requires more accurate planning and more time than the traditional research.