Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Life Situation of People with Persistent Mental Illness Visiting Day Centers: a Comparative Study

  • Brief Report
  • Published:
Community Mental Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study compared the life situation of visitors of day centers (DC) for people with mental illness (N = 93) with a comparison group (N = 82) in respect of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, care consumption, well-being and everyday activities. The response rate was 49%, and those who declined are believed to be those with the most severe psychiatric disabilities. Most individuals were single (81%/78%) and few had children (12%/18%). The DC group had less education than the comparison group but had a friend more often. Although having their need for daily activities met, the DC group had greater unmet needs in respect of daily living in general. They less frequently reported having a psychosis and had fewer negative and more depressive symptoms. They got more housing support and general outpatient care, while the comparison group used specialized psychiatric care more frequently. The samples were equally satisfied with their care, health and well-being and found their everyday activities equally meaningful. The DC visitors formed a vulnerable group, by living single, having a low level of education and having unmet needs, and were at risk of not getting specialized psychiatric care.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andersen, J., Larsen, J. K., Schultz, V., Nielsen, B. M., Korner, A., Behnke, K., et al. (1989). The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Dimension of schizophrenia—Reliability and construct validity. Psychopathology, 22, 168–176.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Argentzell, E., Håkansson, C., & Eklund, M. (in press). Experience of meaning in daily occupations among unemployed people with severe mental illness. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy.

  • Arvidsson, H. (2003). Test-retest reliability of the Camberwell assessment of need (CAN). Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 57, 279–283.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bejerholm, U., & Eklund, M. (2004). Time-use and occupational performance among persons with schizophrenia. Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, 20(1), 27–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bengtsson-Tops, A., Hansson, L., Sandlund, M., Bjarnason, O., Korkeila, J., Merinder, L., et al. (2005). Subjective versus interviewer assessment of global quality of life among persons with schizophrenia living in the community: A Nordic multicentre study. Quality of Life Research, 14, 221–229.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bigelius, U., Eklund, M., & Erlandsson, L.-K. (2009). The value and meaning of an instrumental occupation performed in a clinical setting. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 16, 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjorner, J. B., Kristensen, T. S., Orth-Gomér, K., Tibblin, G., Sullivan, M., & Westerholm, P. (1996). Self-rated health. A useful concept in research, prevention and clinical medicine. Stockholm: Forskningsrådsnämnden [Swedish council for planning and coordination of research].

  • Catty, J., & Burns, T. (2001). Mental health day centres. Their clients and roles. Psychiatric Bulletin, 25, 61–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catty, J., Burns, T., Comas, A., & Poole, Z. (2007). Day centers for severe mental illness. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, issue 1. Art. no.: CD001710. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001710.pub2.

  • Catty, J., Goddard, K., & Burns, T. (2005). Social services day care and health services day care in mental health: do they differ? International Journal of Socical Psychiatry, 51, 151–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crippa, J. A., Sanches, R. F., Hallak, J. E., Loureiro, S. R., & Zuardi, A. W. (2001). A structured interview guide increases Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale reliability in raters with low clinical experience. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 103, 465–470.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eklund, M., Hansson, L., & Ahlqvist, C. (2004). The importance of work as compared to other forms of daily occupations for wellbeing and functioning among persons with long-term mental illness. Community Mental Health Journal, 40, 465–477.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eklund, M., Hansson, L., & Bejerholm, U. (2001). Relationships between satisfaction with occupational factors and health-related variables in schizophrenia outpatients. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36, 79–83.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eklund, M., Ornsberg, L., Ekstrom, C., Jansson, B., & Kjellin, L. (2008). Outcomes of activity-based assessment (BIA) compared with standard assessment in occupational therapy. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 15, 196–203.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L., Fleiss, J. L., & Cohen, J. (1976). The global assessment scale. A procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 766–771.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hansson, L., Bjorkman, T., & Svensson, B. (1995). The assessment of needs in psychiatric patients. Interrater reliability of the Swedish version of the Camberwell assessment of needs instrument and results from a cross-sectional study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 92, 285–293.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hansson, L., & Höglund, E. (1995). Patient satisfaction with psychiatric services. The development, reliability, and validity of two patient-satisfaction questionnaires for use in inpatient and outpatient settings. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 49, 257–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, F. (1991). Day care in an inner city. I. Characteristics of attenders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 805–810. 816.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leufstadius, C., Erlandsson, L.-K., Björkman, T., & Eklund, M. (2008). Meaningfulness in daily occupations among individuals with persistent mental illness. Journal of Occupational Science, 15, 27–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, J. D., & MacArthur, C. T. (2007). The MacArthur Scale of subjective social status from http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/Research/Psychosocial/notebook/subjective.html#Introduction.

  • Oliver, J., Huxley, P., Bridges, K., & Mohamad, H. (1996). Quality of life and mental health services. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Overall, J. E., & Gorham, D. R. (1962). The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Psychological Reports, 10, 799–812.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepherd, G., & Richardson, A. (1979). Organization and interaction in psychiatric day centres. Psycholocigal Medicine, 9, 573–579.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Startup, M., Jackson, M. C., & Bendix, S. (2002). The concurrent validity of the global assessment of functioning (GAF). British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41, 417–422.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Streiner, D. L., & Norman, G. R. (2004). Health measurement scales: A practical guide to their development and use. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swedish Government Official Reports. (2006). Vad är psykiskt funktionshinder? [What is a psychiatric disability?]. Stockholm: National Board of Health and Welfare.

  • Tjörnstrand, C., Bejerholm, U., & Eklund, M. (in press). Participation in day centers for people with psychiatric disabilities - characteristics of the occupations performed. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy.

  • Tracy, K., Adler, L. A., Rotrosen, J., Edson, R., & Lavori, P. (1997). Interrater reliability issues in multicenter trials, Part I: Theoretical concepts and operational procedures used in Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study #394. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 33, 53–57.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ware, J. E., Jr., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36). I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30, 473–483.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • WHO. (1993). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioural disorders. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, Division of Occupational Therapy and Gerontology, Lund University, PO Box 157, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Mona Eklund

  2. Department of Clinical Science/Psychiatry, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Mikael Sandlund

Authors
  1. Mona Eklund
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mikael Sandlund
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mona Eklund.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Eklund, M., Sandlund, M. The Life Situation of People with Persistent Mental Illness Visiting Day Centers: a Comparative Study. Community Ment Health J 48, 592–597 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-011-9410-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-011-9410-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation