Quality of care in services to family members of people with serious mental illnesses.
This paper discusses the current status, importance, and future directions of quality of care work regarding support and information services for family members of people with serious mental illnesses. In reviewing existing literature, it highlights the need for research that documents the services currently received by family members in more depth and detail, the importance of including family-member services in quality-of-care standards and evaluations, and the necessity of grappling with fundamental questions such as who defines "quality" and "optimal" care, whose outcomes are foregrounded in such inquiry, and the development of methodologies to advance this area of inquiry.
Lucksted
A
A
Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore 21201, USA. aluckste@umpsy.umaryland.edu
Dixon
L
L
D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index