Patient satisfaction with treatment for alcohol use disorders: comparing patients with and without severe mental health symptoms

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies suggest patients with co-occurring alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and severe mental health symptoms (SMHS) are less satisfied with standard AUD treatment when compared to patients with an AUD alone. This study compared patient satisfaction with standard AUD treatment among patients with and without SMHS and explored how standard treatment might be improved to better address the needs of these patients.MethodsEighty-nine patients receiving treatment for an AUD either at an inpatient hospital, outpatient clinic, inpatient detoxification, or residential/therapeutic community services were surveyed. Patient satisfaction with treatment was assessed using the Treatment Perception Questionnaire (range: 0–40). Patients were stratified according to their score on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Forty patients scored in the extremely severe range of depression (score >14) and/or anxiety (score >10) (indicating SMHS) and 49 patients did not. An inductive content analysis was also conducted on qualitative data relating to areas of service improvement.ResultsPatients with SMHS were found to be equally satisfied with treatment (mean =25.10, standard deviation =8.12) as patients with an AUD alone (mean =25.43, standard deviation =6.91). Analysis revealed that being an inpatient in hospital was associated with reduced treatment satisfaction. Patients with SMHS were found to be significantly less satisfied with staffs’ understanding of the type of help they wanted in treatment, when compared to patients with AUDs alone. Five areas for service improvement were identified, including staff qualities, informed care, treatment access and continuity, issues relating to inpatient stay, and addressing patients’ mental health needs.ConclusionWhile findings suggest that AUD treatment services adequately meet the needs of patients with SMHS in treatment, patients with SMHS do feel that staff lack understanding of their treatment needs. Findings have important implications as to how current health care practice might be improved according to the patient’s perspective of care.

Satisfaction with health and community services among homeless and formerly homeless individuals in Quebec, Canada

“…Clinical variables positively related to satisfaction with services included: having serious MHD (e.g. schizophrenia ;Gebhardt, Wolak, & Huber, 2013;Katsakou et al, 2010;Kohler et al, 2015), substance use disorders (SUD; McCallum, Andrews, Gaughwin, Turnbull, & Mikocka-Walus, 2016) and personality disorders (Hasler et al, 2004); whereas common MHD (e.g. depression, anxiety; Kavalniene et al, 2018) was negatively related to satisfaction with services.…”

Patient satisfaction with mental health services based on Andersen’s Behavioral Model

“…1,2 Good communication between patients and professionals 19,20 as well as rapid and effective patient health management were also identified as determinants of high satisfaction. 13,21 Positive attitudes among service providers, professionalism, 9,22 and professional competence [22][23][24] also had a positive impact on satisfaction. Moreover, research has identified the importance of an appropriate and adequate environment for providing patient care.…”

“…24 Continuity of care and longer treatment duration, among more vulnerable patients especially, were other important determinants of increased patient satisfaction. 8,24,25 Finally, quality of life (QoL), which includes satisfaction in life domains related to housing, money, and relationships, as well as family and social networks, also related positively to patient satisfaction. 7,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Many studies have analyzed patient satisfaction for specific populations and for particular types of services.…”

Assessing health service satisfaction among users with substance use disorders within the municipalities in Norway

“…There could also be less severe problems among service user in the municipalities, and this could contribute to differences in which factors that affect satisfaction among municipality service users and users of specialised treatment facilities. McCallum et al [28] found more satisfaction among community care programs compared to hospitalized patients. Areas showing less satisfaction included staff competences, treatment access, and that their mental health needs were not met.…”

“…As previously mentioned studies have shown that factors related to satisfaction seem to be strongly related to personnel competence and treatment access [9, 19, 28, 46] In addition to personnel factors, the mental health of service users seems to directly affect their satisfaction [28, 39]. Studying satisfaction among users within the municipalities should include these variables, in addition to municipality size which entails the resource difference which might affect satisfaction.…”