Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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SATISFACTION WITH ACUTE PSYCHIATRIC HOME CARE
COMPARED WITH HOSPITAL IN PATIENT CARE.
Authors:
Pat Gibbons, MD, MRCPsych: Consultant Psychiatrist Celbridge
Health Centre, Maynooth Road, Celbridge, Co Kildare, Ireland.
Tel: 01 6303100. fax: 01 6303101. email: patgibbons@yahoo.com
Angela Cocoman, RPN, BSc, Msc: Lecturer at the School of Nursing
Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.
Tel: 01 7007809. fax:01 7007919. email: angela.cocoman@dcu.ie
Background and context:
A shift from in-patient to home-based acute care for mentally ill
patients was signalled in Planning for the Future (1984) and
empathised more recently in the Vision for Change (2006)
document. The evidence base for such a shift is provided by a large
number of studies in many centres over the last 25 years, initially
focussing on patients with enduring mental illness, which found that
clinical outcome with home based care was equal to that achieved
by hospital care without incurring increased financial costs (Stein &
Test 1980, Muijens et al 1992, Marks et al 1994).
Aim of study:
The North Kildare psychiatric home based acute care service was
set up as part of an agreement made with the South Western Area
Health Board partnership forum and went ‘live’ in May 2004. A
research evaluation was designed to compare the level of
satisfaction of patients and their carers with the provision of homeprovided
acute care with traditional inpatient care.
Methodology:
The evaluation further aimed to compare the subjective level of
family burden experienced by families in each treatment setting.
Satisfaction among service users with the North Kildare psychiatric
home care services and the inpatient hospital service was assessed
using the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (adapted VSSS-EU,
Ruggeri & Dall'Agnola, 1993). The subjective level of burden
experienced by the relatives/carers was also measured using the
Burden Interview (Zarit & Zarit 1990). The questionnaires were
posted to all patients who had been accepted into the home care
treatment programme in the initial nine months of the home based
acute care period. As a comparison group, questionnaires were also
circulated to patients who had been treated as inpatients in the inpatient
unit from another sector over the same period.
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