title: Carer satisfaction with telephone consultations in a community intellectual disability unit.
abstract: This paper reports on a survey of carer satisfaction with telephone consultations with doctors in a community service for people with intellectual disability (also known as learning disability in the UK health services). A 10-item anonymized carer satisfaction questionnaire was sent out following telephone consultations over a 4 week period with questions about suitability, effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness of telephone consultations. Out of 13 questionnaires sent, 11 were returned. There was a high level of satisfaction with accessibility, effectiveness and suitability. Similar numbers felt that telephone consultations were an efficient use of time. However more than one-third of carers said they would have preferred a face-to-face consultation with the doctor. Telephone consultations, although routine practice in psychiatry, need further research to establish them as a viable alternative to face-to-face consultations.
authors.affiliation: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, UK. harinder.bains@nhs.net
authors.forename: Harinder
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bains
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bonell
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Speight
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004526:Efficiency; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D011570:Psychiatry; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013222:State Medicine; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom