Cost Analysis of Community Based Family Support of Patients with Severe Mental Illness

• Published in: Community mental health journal Vol. 54; no. 5; pp. 625 - 633
• Main Authors: Villemoes, Marie Konge, Aagaard, Jørgen, Væggemose, Ulla, Søgaard, Rikke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.07.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Community and Environmental Psychology; Community-based programs; Cost analysis; Families & family life; Family support; Hospitalization; Intervention; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental disorders; Mental health; Original Paper; Patients; Psychiatric hospitals; Psychiatric services; Psychiatry; Social support; Severe mental illness; Crisis home; Cost analysis; Psychiatry; Community family
• ISSN: 0010-3853; 1573-2789
• DOI: 10.1007/s10597-017-0184-x

Community-based family support is a new option to patients with severe mental illness in which the patient and a volunteer family meet on a regular basic. This study examined whether this support could reduce patients’ use of psychiatric services. This matched case-control study included 86 patients with severe mental illness. 40 patients were offered the intervention: community-based family support intervention. Patients’ use of psychiatric hospital services was followed from 2 years before to 2 years after the intervention using a difference-in-difference analytical approach. Although community-based family support seemed to reduce hospital admission, the reduction in cost did not compensate the cost of the programme. However, this does not rule out the potential cost effectiveness, and future studies should assess the clinical benefits and cost effectiveness of community-based family support. The present study does not provide sufficient basis for recommending the general implementation of community-based family support.