Qualitative Assessment of Mental Health Service Satisfaction: Strengths and Limitations of a Self-Administered Procedure

Abstract

A qualitative procedure based on self-administered open-ended questions was assessed in three psychiatric outpatient clinics in Montreal. Acceptability to clients, mode of administration and convergent validity were evaluated. Comparison with findings from personal interviews demonstrates a lower frequency in responses but similar patterns in sources of satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Scores generated by quantification of responses to one of the open-ended questions presented a significant correlation with a standardized questionnaire (OQOS) administered to 242 psychiatric outpatients. Findings suggest that a self-administered procedure based on open-ended questions could be practical and useful for both formative evaluation and monitoring in environments with limited resources.

Satisfaction with Mental Health Services in a Latin American Community of Carers of Patients with Schizophrenia

“…Similar results were found in Canada, Spain and Denmark (Perreault et al 2006;Cuevas et al 1996;Merinder et al 1999). In our sample, significant differences in the satisfaction measures (patient's evolution and satisfaction with the mental health service) were found between the experimental group and the control group.…”

“…So the measurement of satisfaction has emerged as an important reference point for the development of services, and is a significant indicator of service excellence (Svensson and Hansson 2006). The most commonly used method for evaluating satisfaction with mental health services is the administration of self-report questionnaires to patients and family members (Perreault et al 2006). The results of research into this topic are contradictory.…”

Determinants of Barriers to Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

“…Moreover, online questionnaires have been demonstrated to provide a sense of social distance that may encourage respondents to express themselves candidly [33]. This may have had the effect of decreasing respondents' social desirability bias and limiting the impact of other factors known to elicit favourable evaluations of treatment [34]. More studies that compare traditional surveys and online surveys about patients' perspective on services are necessary in order to verify these hypotheses.…”

Satisfação dos pacientes com os serviços de saúde mental: a percepção de mudanças como preditora

“…Escalas de medidas dicotômicas possuem baixa sensibilidade, pois não oferecem diversidade de alternativas de respostas. Escalas unifatoriais não fornecem escores diversificados para aferir as diferentes dimensões do construto avaliado, permitindo apenas uma avaliação global da variável estudada 22 . Escalas multifatoriais, ao contrário, possuem subescalas diferenciadas que avaliam diversas dimensões do construto, por meio de escores independentes.…”