[Accommodations for psychiatric patients. An empirical study of the Basel area canton]

The psychiatric services of the Swiss region of Basel-Landschaft observed an increasing deterioration and shortage of accommodation offers for mentally ill persons. At the same time, it grew temporarily more and more difficult to let single rooms in flat-sharing communities. Therefore a psychiatric services research project aimed at evaluating the wishes and needs of specialists in the housing sphere, and of about 600 in- and outpatients, as well as for their caregivers. The results showed, similar to other studies, on the one hand patients' predominant wish to live independently, whereas on the other hand there was a great difference between the views of patients and their caregivers. The latter view this aspiration for independence rather skeptically. The striking disagreement between patients and caregivers may be fruitful for the therapeutic process; however, this applies only if both partners are aware of this fact.