An assessment of gender as a factor among severely mentally disabled case management clients

Ninety-four clients who were receiving intensive case management services were assessed for gender differences on a variety of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, functioning level, social network and subjective and objective quality of life. The high degree of similarities among male and female clients in the study suggests the possibility that mental disability is more socially handicapping than gender. An alternative explanation is that there is a paucity of gender sensitive measures available to evaluate mental health services. Regardless of gender, younger clients were less satisfied with their living arrangement and were less satisfied with family relations, although young women were least satisfied with family relations. The need for development of gender sensitive measures and the development and evaluation of services addressing needs of women with serious mental illness is discussed.