No abstract

The authors report a patient satisfaction study that addressed some of the methodological limitations of previous studies and attempted to increase the variance in satisfaction assessment by increasing the scope and specificity of inquiry. Same sex patient/therapist match, duration of therapy, individual therapy and treatment with staff social workers rather than psychiatric residents all were positively correlated with increased patient satisfaction. Satisfaction appeared to be a unitary dimension that could be tapped by a global score. Nonetheless, although overall satisfaction was high, one third of patients preferred an alternative treatment.

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In the current study, psychiatric patient, family, and evaluator satisfaction with initial treatment recommendations was examined in relation to patient compliance with treatment methods and clinical improvement. Only family satisfaction was positively correlated with both compliance and improvement. This finding challenges the predominant view that families play negative roles in psychiatric illness by exacerbating symptomatology and, instead, stresses the positive facilitating role of the family. Implications for involving families in treatment evaluations and social work practice are discussed.