Quality of life of persons with severe mental illness living in an intermediate care facility.

Abstract

This study examined resident characteristics, clinical factors, and mental health service utilization associated with quality of life (QOL) for residents living in an Intermediate Care Facility (ICF). This study also utilized published literature to compare the QOL of ICF residents to persons with psychiatric disorders living in other residential settings. Chart review and interviews were used to study 100 randomly selected residents living in an ICF with a chart diagnosis of schizophrenia. Multivariate analyses suggest that higher levels of QOL are associated with reports that psychological problems did not interfere with work and activities and with lower levels of being a danger to others. Also, a comparison of the QOL scores reported by ICF residents to other published mentally ill populations suggests that residents of the ICF report somewhat higher QOL scores than state hospital patients, but lower scores as compared to other community samples. Data provide insight into the types of problems faced by residents of an intermediate care facility. These findings have implications for understanding the importance of mental health service utilization on QOL.