Supervised community treatment: patient perspectives in two Merseyside mental health teams
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the perspectives of patients subject to supervised community treatment (SCT) within two mental health teams in Merseyside.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured survey tool was developed to explore patient perspective. In total, 17 patients agreed to participate in the study subject to informed consent.
Findings
The majority of patients believed SCT facilitated early hospital discharge but felt uninvolved in the process. A significant proportion lacked the motivation or ability to understand the verbal and written information pertaining to their legal rights at the time it was given, usually immediately prior to hospital discharge. All felt they must strictly abide to the SCT conditions to remain in the community. There was a lack of knowledge about the harm criteria and the responsible clinician's ability to recall a service user to hospital even if they abided by the conditions.
Research limitations/implications
This study is based upon a small sample size. There is no attempt to generalise the results.
Originality/value
There have been few studies exploring the perspective of patients subject to SCT. A fuller awareness and understanding of patient perspective is important to promote involvement and therapeutic outcomes.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors have no financial conflict of interest to declare. There was no external research funding for this study. This study is dedicated to Dr Sophie Lynch.
Citation
Michael Fahy, G., Javaid, S. and Best, J. (2013), "Supervised community treatment: patient perspectives in two Merseyside mental health teams", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 157-164. https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-11-2012-0030
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited