title: Satisfaction with mental health services among people with schizophrenia in five European sites: results from the EPSILON Study.
abstract: Patient satisfaction with services is an important outcome variable that is increasingly used in mental health service evaluation. This study includes 404 people with schizophrenia in five European sites and addresses five questions focused on site, service, and patient characteristics as variables that might explain service satisfaction, using the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale. Patient satisfaction differed significantly across sites (highest in Copenhagen, lowest in London). In all sites, patients were least satisfied with involvement of relatives in care and information about illness. A multiple regression model showed that lower levels of total service satisfaction were associated with living in London or Santander, being retired/unemployed, having more hospital admissions, having more severe psychopathology, having more unmet needs, or having lower satisfaction with life. This model explained 31 percent of variance in service satisfaction. Our data show that service satisfaction can be seen as a result of (1) the ability of the service to provide a standard of care above a certain quality threshold, and (2) the perception of each patient that the care received has been tailored to the patient's own problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry, University of Verona, Italy. mirella.ruggeri@univr.it
authors.forename: Mirella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lasalvia
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bisoffi
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thornicroft
authors.forename: Josè Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vàzquez-Barquero
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knapp
authors.forename: Helle Charlotte
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Knudsen
authors.forename: Aart
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schene
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tansella
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*