Hospital brochures in mental healthcare. how patient-centered are they?

Abstract

From the results of the 2020 Flemish survey looking into psychiatric patients' views of the in-patient care they have received, it appeared that hospital communication is experienced as not sufficiently patient-centered. In communication research, the quality of written patient materials in physical healthcare has been scrutinized and suggestions for the enhancement of their patient-centeredness, comprehensibility, and actionability have been made. Yet, a similar research interest in the quality of health communication in mental healthcare has failed to materialize. Against a definition of patient-centeredness in mental healthcare, this study investigated the quality of 30 psychiatric hospital brochures from a triangulated linguistic and content perspective, using readability formulas as well as the CCI and PEMAT-P instruments. It appeared that none of the brochures are sufficiently patient-centered, as they fail to take appropriate and full account of mental health patients' specific concerns and difficulties. The lack of quality brochures hampers patients' understanding of their mental health condition and participation in their recovery process, especially when they have a low (mental) health literacy. Together, hospitals and patient organizations, should remedy this situation and thus fortify the public's trust in the evidence-based and high-quality patient-centered care psychiatric hospitals offer.