Listening to patients' needs to improve their subjective quality of life

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 1655-1665 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIO LASALVIA ◽  
CHIARA BONETTO ◽  
FRANCESCA MALCHIODI ◽  
GIOVANNI SALVI ◽  
ALBERTO PARABIAGHI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Subjective Quality ◽  
Subjective Quality Of Life ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Prospective Longitudinal

Background. Subjective quality of life has gained a crucial role as a global measure of outcome in mental health care. This study aimed to investigate the impact of meeting needs for care, as assessed by both patients and mental health professionals, to improve the subjective quality of life in a sample of patients receiving community-based psychiatric care.Method. The study was conducted using a 4-year prospective longitudinal design. A cohort of patients from the South-Verona Community-based Mental Health Service (CMHS) was assessed at baseline and follow-up using, among other social and clinical measures, the Camberwell Assessment of Need (both staff and patient versions) and the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile. Predictors of changes of subjective quality of life were explored using block-stratified multiple regression procedures.Results. Improvement in patients' clinical conditions as well as the reduction in patient-rated unmet needs in the social domain predicted an increase in subjective quality of life over 4 years; changes in staff-rated needs did not show any association with changes in subjective quality of life.Conclusions. Meeting self-perceived social needs, beyond symptoms reduction, seems to be of particular importance for ensuring a better quality of life for people with mental disorders. If the main goal of mental health care is to improve the quality of life of users, a policy of actively addressing patient-rated needs should be implemented.

Depressions Plural

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
K W M (Bill) Fulford ◽  
David Crepaz-Keay ◽  
Giovanni Stanghellini
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Personal Values ◽  
The Political ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Isaiah Berlin ◽  
Political Philosopher

This chapter examines how values influence the heterogeneity of depression. The plurality of values is increasingly significant for contemporary person-centred mental health care with its emphasis on quality of life and development of self-manvnagement skills. Values-based practice is a partner with medical law invn working with the plurality of personal values. The chapter explains what values are, shows how the plurality of values influences the heterogeneity of depression at several levels, and provides an overview of values-based practice. It looks at the resources available for combining values-based practice with medical law in contemporary person-centred care and indicates some of the challenges this raises. It concludes with a brief reflection on these challenges understood as an instance of what the political philosopher Isaiah Berlin called the challenge of pluralism.

Cognitive determinants of community functioning and quality of life in homeless adults with mental illness: 6-year follow-up from the At Home/Chez Soi Study Toronto site

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
K. M. Gicas ◽  
C. Mejia-Lancheros ◽  
R. Nisenbaum ◽  
R. Wang ◽  
S. W. Hwang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Functional Outcomes ◽  
Verbal Learning ◽  
Subjective Quality ◽  
Subjective Quality Of Life ◽  
Homeless Adults ◽  
Community Functioning ◽  
At Home

Abstract Background High rates of physical and mental health comorbidities are associated with functional impairment among persons who are homeless. Cognitive dysfunction is common, but how it contributes to various functional outcomes in this population has not been well investigated. This study examines how cognition covaries with community functioning and subjective quality of life over a 6-year period while accounting for the effects of risk and protective factors. Methods Participants were 349 homeless adults (mean age = 39.8) recruited from the Toronto site of the At Home/Chez Soi study, a large Canadian randomized control trial of Housing First. Participants completed up to four clinical evaluations over 6 years. Factor scores were created to index verbal learning and memory (vLM) and processing speed-cognitive flexibility (PSCF). The primary outcomes were community functioning and subjective quality of life. Risk factors included lifetime homelessness, mental health diagnoses, medical comorbidity, and childhood adversity. Linear mixed-effects models were conducted to examine cognition-functional outcome associations over time, with resilience as a moderator. Results Better vLM (b = 0.787, p = 0.010) and PSCF (b = 1.66, p < 0.001) were associated with better community functioning, but not with quality of life. Resilience conferred a protective effect on subjective quality of life (b = 1.45, p = 0.011) but did not moderate outcomes. Conclusions Our findings suggest a need to consider the unique determinants of community functioning and quality of life among homeless adults. Cognition should be prioritized as a key intervention target within existing service delivery models to optimize long-term functional outcomes.

scholarly journals Challenges in Investigating the Effective Components of Feedback from Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) in Youth Mental Health Care

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maartje A. M. S. van Sonsbeek ◽  
Giel J. M. Hutschemaekers ◽  
Jan W. Veerman ◽  
Ad Vermulst ◽  
Marloes Kleinjan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Youth Mental Health ◽  
Routine Outcome Monitoring ◽  
Effective Components ◽  
Outcome Monitoring

Abstract BackGround Studies on feedback in youth mental health care are scarce and implementation of feedback into clinical practice is problematic. Objective To investigate potentially effective components of feedback from Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) in youth mental health care in the Netherlands through a three-arm, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial in which a literature-based, multi-faceted implementation strategy was used. Method Participants were randomly allocated to three conditions (basic feedback about symptoms and quality of life; basic feedback supplemented with clinical support tools; discussion of the feedback of the second condition with a colleague while following a standardized format for case consultation) using a block randomization procedure, stratified by location and participants’ age. The youth sample consisted of 225 participants (mean age = 15.08 years; 61.8% female) and the parent sample of 234 mothers and 54 fathers (mean age of children = 12.50 years; 47.2% female). Primary outcome was symptom severity. Secondary outcomes were quality of life and end-of-treatment variables. Additionally, we evaluated whether being Not On Track (NOT) moderated the association between condition and changes in symptom severity. Results No significant differences between conditions and no moderating effect of being NOT were found. This outcome can probably be attributed to limited power and implementation difficulties, such as infrequent ROM, unknown levels of viewing and sharing of feedback, and clinicians’ poor adherence to feedback conditions. Conclusions The study contributes to our limited knowledge about feedback from ROM and underscores the complexity of research on and implementation of ROM within youth mental health care. Trial registration Dutch Trial Register NTR4234 .

scholarly journals The impact of routine outcome measurement on treatment processes in community mental health care: approach and methods of the MECCA study

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Priebe ◽  
Rosemarie McCabe ◽  
Jens Bullenkamp ◽  
Lars Hansson ◽  
Wulf Rössler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Outcome Measurement ◽  
Treatment Decisions ◽  
Community Mental Health Care

SUMMARYThree issues characterise the background to the MECCA study: A) Throughout Europe, most patients with severe forms of psychotic disorders are cared for in the community. The challenge now is to make processes in community mental health care more effective. B) There are widespread calls to implement regular outcome measurement in routine settings. This, however, is more likely to happen, if it provides a direct benefit to clinicians and patients. C) Whilst user involvement is relatively ?" easy to achieve on a political level, new mechanisms may have to be established to make the views of patients feed into individual treatment decisions. The MECCA study is a cluster randomised controlled trial following the same protocol in community mental health teams in six European countries. In the experimental group, patients' subjective quality of life, treatment satisfaction and wishes for different or additional help are assessed in key worker-patient meetings every two months and intended to inform the therapeutic dialogue and treatment decisions. The trial tests the hypothesis that the intervention – as compared to current best standard practice – will lead to a better outcome in terms of quality of life and other criteria in patients with psychotic disorders over a one year period. This more favourable outcome is assumed to be mediated through different treatment input based on more appropriate joint decisions or a more positive therapeutic relationship in line with a partnership model of care or both. Moreover, the study will hopefully reveal new insights into how therapeutic processes in community mental health care work and how they can be optimised.

scholarly journals Comparison of mental health and subjective quality of life in sexual minority versus heterosexual autistic adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goldie McQuaid ◽  
Justine Gendy ◽  
Nancy Raitano Lee ◽  
Gregory Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Minority ◽  
Subjective Quality ◽  
Subjective Quality Of Life ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Autistic Adults ◽  
Minority Identities

Background: Although disparities in mental health and subjective quality of life have been reported for autistic adults, reasons for these disparities are poorly understood. A potential factor in these disparities is exposure to social stressors related to minority status (i.e., minority stress), including stigma and discrimination. Autistic individuals are more likely than non-autistic individuals to possess other minority identities, including sexual minority identities. However, to date, few studies have examined whether sexual minority autistic adults experience diminished mental health relative to heterosexual autistic adults, and no research has examined subjective quality of life for sexual minority compared to heterosexual autistic adults.Methods: Participants were 679 autistic adults aged 18.5 to 83.3 years recruited through Simons Powering Autism Research Knowledge Research Match. Participants completed surveys online, including measures of anxious and depressive symptomatology, perceived stress, and subjective quality of life. Participants reported their sexual orientation and other socio-demographic variables. Results: A large proportion of autistic adults reported a sexual minority identity (43.4%). Sexual minority autistic adults showed poorer mental health and lower subjective quality of life relative to heterosexual autistic adults. Diminished quality of life in the sexual minority group appears to be driven by the strength of the effects for gay and pansexual compared to heterosexual autistic adults. Conclusion: Understanding factors that may be related to poorer mental health and decreased subjective quality of life in autistic adults is critical and has been identified as a research priority among autistic stakeholders. The findings reported here underscore the need to examine mental health and subjective quality of life disparities among autistic individuals within a societal context, taking into consideration the potential of intersecting minority identities and increased social stressors, as these hold the potential to increase risks for poorer outcome.

A mediational model of quality of life for individuals with severe mental health problems

1998 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1221-1230 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. ZISSI ◽  
M. M. BARRY ◽  
R. COCHRANE
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Subjective Quality ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Subjective Quality Of Life ◽  
Mediational Model ◽  
Objective Indicators

Background. Despite the increasing importance of quality of life in the mental health field, the theoretical conceptualization of the construct remains poorly developed. A proposed mediational model of quality of life, which links subjective quality of life with self-related constructs, is examined with a group of long-term psychiatric hostel residents. The present study aims to develop a measure of quality of life based on the proposed model, to explore the data and their implications for service development and finally to conduct a preliminary analysis of the model's predictions.Method. A cross-sectional research design was employed. Quality of life interviews, using a modified version of Lehman's Quality of Life Interview, were carried out with 54 psychiatric residents in Greece. The model's predictions were examined by using a series of regression analyses.Results. The results indicate that perceived improvements in lifestyle, greater autonomy and positive self-concept are significantly and directly associated with better quality of life. In contrast, a direct relationship between objective indicators and subjective quality of life was not found.Conclusions. The traditional two-part quality of life model that includes objective indicators of life circumstances and subjective indicators is extended to included the constructs of self-concept and perceived autonomy. The present extended mediational model of quality of life for individuals with long-term mental health problems appears to have important implications for the planning and delivery of mental health programmes.

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