Pattern of intervention and patients' satisfaction with community mental health services in Bologna

Abstract

To measure satisfaction with Community Mental Health Service (CSM) in patients and to check if it will be associated with some selected demographic and service variables. This study compares data from satisfaction scale administration in patients who attended CSM at least once every two months during 1998 and services that them have benefited from. The Community Mental Health Service of Saragozza-Porto District in Bologna. Main outcome measures--Demographical, clinical and service variables taken from CSM informative system and Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS-32), a multidimensional instrument which measures satisfaction with community-based psychiatric service. Main results (145 subjects) pointed out higher satisfaction for technical and interpersonal skills of staff, information, drugs, help to get economical benefits and domiciliary care. Four issues stood out by comparing patients' satisfaction and their demographic, clinical and services' benefit features: 1) aged patients complained about high drugs costs and of contacts with other seriously ill patients into the waiting room; 2) relative's involvement was judged as insufficiently effective; 3) in young patients with serious mental disease high frequency of visits seemed to correlate with low satisfaction; 4) patients with complex pattern of intervention (including economical benefits) were the less satisfied ones with service's economical support. Patients' satisfaction differs according to their demographic and clinical features, but the pattern of intervention seems to influence their judgements too, sometimes in a incoherent way.