Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T23:42:53.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Empowerment, quality of life and service satisfaction: comparisons between a hospital and community placement group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Keith Kerrigan ,
Gavin Davidson  and
Ciaran Shannon
Keith Kerrigan
Affiliation:
Homefirst Community Trust, Holywell Hospital, 60 Steeple Road Antrim, BT41 2 RJ, Northern Ireland.
Gavin Davidson
Affiliation:
School of Social Work, Queens University Belfast, 7 Lennoxvale Belfast, BT9 5BY, Northern Ireland.
Ciaran Shannon*
Affiliation:
Homefirst Community Trust, Holywell Hospital, 60 Steeple Road, Antrim, BT41 2 RJ, Northern Ireland
*
*Correspondence Email: ciaran.shannon@homefirst.n-i.nhs.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives: Recent advances in mental healthcare policy and service delivery have lead to the development of community care initiatives which have enabled those individuals traditionally cared for in hospital environments to be resettled successfully in community living arrangements that foster an ethos of empowerment and recovery. This study sought to identify differences between a hospital continuing care group (n = 16) and a community placement group (n = 20) in relation to quality of life, satisfaction and levels of empowerment.

Method: The study was a cross-sectional design. It follows up a cohort of individuals identified as the ‘hospital continuing care group’ (365+ consecutive days in psychiatric hospital care) by Homefirst Community Trust in Northern Ireland. A proportion of this population has been resettled into community care environments and some continue to reside in hospital. Patients both in the hospital continuing care group and the community placement group completed two standard questionnaires that covered a number of variables including empowerment, quality of life and service satisfaction.

Results: There were significant differences between the hospital continuing care and community placement groups across scores on service satisfaction, quality of life, and empowerment in the current study. Hypotheses relating to service satisfaction (z = −4.117; p < 0.01 ), quality of life (z = −3.944; p < 0.01) and empowerment (z = −4.645; p < 0.01) were supported with higher levels of each evidenced by the community placement group.

Conclusions: The results are supportive of continued resettlement from continuing care in traditional psychiatric hospitals and suggests that such resettlement increases quality of life, satisfaction with services and levels of empowerment. The limitations of the research design are empowerment. The limitations of the research design are also discussed.

Keywords

ResettlementQuality of lifeSatisfactionEmpowerment
Type
Original Papers
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 40 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Goodwin, S. Comparative Mental Health Policy: From Institutional to Community Care. London: Sage.Google Scholar
2.Trieman, N, Leff, J, Glover, G. Outcome of long stay psychiatric patients resettled in the community: prospective cohort study. Br Med J 1999; 319:13–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Brown, P. Social implications of deinstitutionalization. J ComPsychol 1980; 8: 314–322. Goldney RD. Deinstitutionalisation and suicide. J Crisis Interven Suicide 2003; 24: 39-40.Google ScholarPubMed
4.Barbato, A, D'Avanzo, B, Rocca, G, Amatulli, A, Lampugnani, D. A study of long stay patients resettled in the community after closure of a psychiatric hospital in Italy. Psych Ser 2004; 55: 67–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Leff, J and Trieman, N. Long-stay patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals: Social and clinical outcomes after 5 years in the community. The TAPS Project 46. Br J Psychiatry 2000; 176: 217–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Okin, RL, Pearsall, D. Patients' perceptions of their quality of life eleven years after discharge from a state hospital. Hos Com Psychiatry 1993; 44: 236–240.Google Scholar
7.Leff, J, Dayson, D, Gooch, C, Thornicroft, G, Willis, W. Quality of life of long-stay patients discharged from two psychiatric institutions. Psychiatric Ser 1996; 47: 62–67.Google ScholarPubMed
8.Prior, P. Mental Health and Politics in Northern Ireland. Aldershot: Avebury, 1993.Google Scholar
9.Department of Health and Social Services. A Regional Strategy for the Northern Ireland Health and Personal Social Services, 1987-1992. Belfast: DHSS, 1986.Google Scholar
10.Leff, J. Care in the Community: Illusion or Reality? Chichester: Wiley, 1997.Google Scholar
11.Donnelly, Met al.Opening New Doors: an evaluation of community care for people discharged from psychiatric and mental handicap hospitals. Belfast: HMSO, 1994:167.Google Scholar
12.Department of Health and Social Services. A Regional Strategy for the Northern Ireland Health and Personal Social Services, 1992-1997. Belfast: DHSS, 1991.Google Scholar
13.Department of Health and Social Services. Health and Wellbeing into the Next Millenium: Regional Strategy for Health and Social Wellbeing. Belfast: DHSS, 1996: 90.Google Scholar
14.Hansson, L, Bjorkman, T. Empowerment in people with a mental illness: reliability and validity of the Swedish version of an empowerment scale. Scand J Caring Sci 2005; 19: 32–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15.Rogers, ES, Chamberlin, J, Langer-Ellison, M, Crean, T. A consumer-constructed scale to measure empowerment among users of mental health services. Psychiatric Ser 1997; 48:1042–1047.Google ScholarPubMed
16.Kaufmann, CL, Freund, D, Wilson, J. Self-help in the mental health system: A model for consumer-provider collaboration. Psychosocial Rehab J 1989; 13: 5–21.Google Scholar
17.Northern Health and Social Services Board. Commissioning a Modern Mental Health Service. Ballymena: NHSSB, 1998.Google Scholar
18.Clifford, P, Charman, A, Webb, Y, TJK, Craig, Cowan, D. Planning for Community Care: The Community Placement Questionnaire. Br J Clin Psychol 1991; 30: 193–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Lelliott, P, Beevor, A, Hogman, G, Hyslop, J, Lathlean, J, Ward, M. Carers' and users' expectations of services-user version: a new instrument to measure the experience of users of mental health services. Br J Psychiatry 2001; 179: 67–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
20.Lelliott, P, Beevor, A, Hogman, G, Hyslop, J, Lathlean, J, Ward, M. Carers' and users' expectations of services-user version: a new instrument to measure the experience of users of mental health services. Br J Psychiatry 2001; 179: 67–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21.Rogers, ES, Chamberlin, J, Langer-Ellison, M, Crean, T. A consumer-constructed scale to measure empowerment among users of mental health services. Psychiatric Ser 1997; 48:1042–1047.Google ScholarPubMed
22.Rogers, ES, Chamberlin, J, Langer-Ellison, M, Crean, T. A consumer-constructed scale to measure empowerment among users of mental health services. Psychiatric Ser 1997; 48:1042–1047.Google ScholarPubMed
23.Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Mental health services in Australia 2003-2004. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2005.Google Scholar
24.Oshima, I, Mino, Y, Inomata, Y. Institutionalisation and schizophrenia in Japan: social environments and negative symptoms. Nationwide survey of in-patients. Br J Psychiatry 2003; 183: 50–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25.Roberts, G. and Wolfson, P. The rediscovery of recovery: open to all. Adv Psych Treat 2004;10:37–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26.Fitzsimons, S, Fuller, R. Empowerment and its implications for clinical practice in mental health: A review. J Mental Health 2002; 11(5): 481–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Roberts, G, Wolfson, P. The rediscovery of recovery: open to all. Adv Psych Treat 2004;10:37–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28.Segal, SP, Silverman, C, Temkin, T. Measuring empowerment in client-run self-help agencies. Com Mental Health J 1995; 31:215–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29.McWhiriter, EH. Empowerment in Counselling. J Coun Dev 1991; 69: 222–227. Cited in Fitzsimons S and Fuller R. Empowerment and its implications for clinical practice in mental health: A review. J Mental Health 2002; 11 (5): 481-499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30.Zimmerman, MA. Toward a theory of learned hopefulness. A structural model analysis of participation and empowerment. J Res Personality 1990; 24:71–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31.Zimmerman, MA, Rappaport, J. Citizen participation, perceived control and psychological empowerment. Am J Com Psychol 1988; 16:725–750.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32.Leff, J, Trieman, N. Long-stay patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals: Social and clinical outcomes after 5 years in the community. The TAPS Project 46. Br J Psychiatry 2000; 176: 217–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Donnelly, Met al.Opening New Doors: an evaluation of community care for people discharged from psychiatric and mental handicap hospitals. Belfast: HMSO, 1994:167.Google Scholar
34.Clifford, P, Charman, A, Webb, Y and Best, S. Planning for Community Care: Long-Stay Populations of Hospitals Scheduled for Rundown or Closure. Br J Psychiatry 1991;158:190–196.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed