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Observational Study
. 2025 May;61(4):754-763.
doi: 10.1007/s10597-024-01400-5. Epub 2024 Dec 4.

Psychosocial Outcomes of Supported Living for People with Severe Mental Illness: A One Year Evaluation of Floating Outreach in Germany

Lorenz B Dehn  1   2 , Julia Schreiter  3 , Ingmar Steinhart  3 , Martin Driessen  4   5
Affiliations
Observational Study

Psychosocial Outcomes of Supported Living for People with Severe Mental Illness: A One Year Evaluation of Floating Outreach in Germany

Lorenz B Dehn et al. Community Ment Health J. 2025 May.

Abstract

Supported living plays an important role in the community-based care for people with mental illness. However, support services like floating outreach have hardly been the subject of longer-term research to date, especially with regard to Germany. Thus, the main aim of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the psychosocial outcomes of floating outreach support for non-homeless people with severe mental illness across a one-year period. In a group of n = 119 people (M = 41 years old, 36% with affective disorders) the quantitative analyses revealed significant improvements in quality of life (MANSA), overall social functioning (SFS), as well as general support and care needs (CAN-EU). Nevertheless, there were still some unmet (and even increasing) care needs among the respondents after one year, especially in the domains of "physical health" and "company of others". These findings therefore indicate areas of support that should be given more attention in the future.

Keywords: Independent supported housing; Needs; Psychiatric rehabilitation; Social psychiatry; Supported accommodation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Proportion of unmet needs in the CAN-EU domains at study entry and 12 months later
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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