Client feedback--development of an instrument for psychiatric inpatients

A client feedback instrument and method has been developed to improve service delivery to psychiatric inpatients. Results indicate that the strongest cause of patients believing they can cope with life out of hospital is the quality of communication between staff, followed by communication with staff and satisfaction with the centre overall. A secondary finding was that good response rates can be achieved and reliable data can be gathered from psychiatric patients. Further development options and potential application to other psychiatric hospitals are discussed.