Factors influencing the support offered to the seriously mentally ill by a Community Rehabilitation Service

Abstract

This study explored the factors associated with the degree of support offered to people with severe mental illness living in community-supported accommodation in one area of Northern Ireland. Ninety patients were assessed using psychiatric rating scales and measures of social functioning and problem behaviour. The degree of support provided was classified on one of five levels, based on a modified version of the Functional Analysis of Care Environments (FACE). Three variables - poor community skills, socially unacceptable behaviour and attitudinal and relationship problems - explained 26.5% of the variance in the level of support provided to individuals. Other variables, including measures of psychiatric symptomatology, did not add to the percentage of variance explained. The results are discussed in terms of the characteristics of the community care population in Northern Ireland and compared to studies in other parts of the UK.