Staff and patient feedback in mental health services for older people

OBJECTIVES: To compare the views of patients and staff on the quality of care provided on a psychogeriatric assessment ward over a five year period. To describe the quality improvements which were made as a result of their respective comments. DESIGN: Structured interviews were conducted with both patients and staff to obtain qualitative feedback and suggestions for improvement. An analysis of the percentage of positive and negative comments made by both patients and staff was used to compare the levels of satisfaction on a variety of aspects of the service provided. SETTING: Psychogeriatric inpatient assessment ward. SUBJECTS: 75 patients and 85 staff interviews were conducted. MAIN MEASURES: Structured interviews covering various aspects of service quality. RESULTS: Staff and patients picked up on different aspects of service quality as important. Quality improvements which arose from the interviews were clearly different. Generally patients were more positive about the physical environment and standards of professional care than staff, but less positive about issues of privacy, social interaction, and empowerment. CONCLUSIONS: The perspectives of patients and staff in this area are not interchangeable. Both series of interviews led to several positive changes in the quality of care. Interviews with staff seem to have been valuable in a low morale situation. A structured interview format provided patients with an opportunity to feedback openly and led to changes in service quality which would not otherwise have occurred

ATTITUDE MEASURES IN EVALUATION RESEARCH: A RESEARCH NOTE

The paper focuses on the use of attitude measures in evaluation research. It is suggested that attitude measures can assist evaluators in surmounting the problems of assessing program effectiveness both in process and impact evaluations. Attitude change can be conceptualized as the intended output of programs, as intervening between program variables and behavior or as proxy measures of behavioral target variables that are not readily measurable. Attitude measures can play avital role in evaluation research if an adequate methodology is employed. Copyright 1986 by The Policy Studies Organization.