Quality of Psychiatric Care in Inpatient Mental Health Settings: Perspectives From Patients and Staff

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises the need to improve the quality of care and ensure full respect for the human rights of people with mental health problems and psychosocial disabilities. The participation of both inpatients and professionals is essential to understand and improve mental health care. This study aimed to describe and compare the perceptions of care quality between inpatients and health professionals in mental health hospitalisation units, and to determine possible relationships between these perceptions and other study variables. A descriptive cross-sectional comparative study was conducted. The study population was recruited through nonprobabilistic convenience sampling. The quality of care was measured using the QPC-IP and QPC-IPS instruments, each with 30 items assessing six dimensions. A descriptive analysis of the database was performed, generating descriptive statistics for numerical variables and frequency tables for categorical variables. Data analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS v.28. The sample consisted of 150 inpatients and 163 professionals from mental health hospitalisation units in the Barcelona area (Spain). Final results showed high overall levels of care quality from both patients’ (<em>m</em> = 94.20 ± 15.59) and staff’s (<em>m</em> = 91.32 ± 12.42) perspectives. Both inpatients and staff gave high scores to the dimensions of Encounter (patients: 3.3 ± 0.6; professionals: 3.4 ± 0.5) and Support (patients: 3.2 ± 0.7; professionals: 3.4 ± 0.5), while the dimensions rated lowest in terms of quality were Secluded Environment (patients: 2.6 ± 0.7; professionals: 2.5 ± 0.8) and Secure Environment (patients: 2.9 ± 0.8; professionals: 2.5 ± 0.7). Conclusions: Continuous evaluation of quality in mental health hospitalisation settings is essential to ensure the highest quality of care. This guarantees full respect for rights and dignified care, considering the perspectives of the main stakeholders.