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Multicenter Study
. 2022 May;57(5):927-937.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-021-02214-6. Epub 2022 Jan 18.

Effectiveness of supported housing versus residential care in severe mental illness: a multicenter, quasi-experimental study

Lorenz B Dehn  1 , Thomas Beblo  2 , Dirk Richter  3   4   5 , Günther Wienberg  6 , Georg Kremer  6 , Ingmar Steinhart  7   8 , Martin Driessen  2
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Effectiveness of supported housing versus residential care in severe mental illness: a multicenter, quasi-experimental study

Lorenz B Dehn et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2022 May.

Abstract

Purpose: Up to now there are only few studies and no RCT comparing efficacy or effectiveness of supported housing (SH) versus residential care (RC) in severe mental illness (SMI) without homelessness. Here we present an observational follow-up study in SMI subjects, who entered SH or RC, to compare clinical and functional outcomes 2 years later.

Methods: In this prospective study in more than 30 locations throughout a German federal state, we included SMI subjects, who entered SH (n = 153) or RC (n = 104). About one quarter suffered from each substance use, psychotic, affective, or other disorders. To avoid sampling bias, we used the propensity score matching method to establish a quasi-experimental design. Outcome measures were social functioning (SFS), the number of psychiatric hospitalisations, psychopathology (SCL-9-K), and quality of life (MANSA). Apart from descriptive methods we analysed primarily using repeated-measures ANOVAS.

Results: Our analyses revealed significant effects of time for all outcomes in both study groups. However, there were not any group differences of outcome measures, i.e., not any significant effects of group or interactional effects of group x time. Moreover, these results hold true for intent-to-treat and per-protocol sample analyses.

Conclusion: The results show, that SH and RC for non-homeless people with SMI achieve the same clinical and psychosocial outcomes across a 2-year period. Taking into account the users' preferences, the present findings should give reason to ensure the availability of affordable housing and to support the expansion of supported housing approaches.

Keywords: Health services, Supported accommodation; Psychiatric rehabilitation; Social functioning.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study flowchart with patients from Residential Care (RC) and Supported Housing (SH)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Descriptive results of the numerical (M, SD) and dichotomous (%) outcome measures for persons from Residential Care (RC) and Supported Housing (SH)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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