[Quality assurance in a psychiatric day clinic. A catamnestic study with goal attainment scaling]

For the second time after 1990, a community mental health service questioned the outcome quality of its day hospital in rehabilitating primarily psychotic patients.

In addition to the assessment of 66 persons at the beginning and at the end of an average of six months' treatment in the years 1990-95, a psychologist who had not been involved in the treatment interviewed 49 persons one year after discharge with the use of goal attainment scaling in five relevant fields.

Due to the economic recession the goal attainment decreased with regard to the job situation in the sense that it was difficult to find unsheltered jobs. By defining the goals in accordance with the needs of the patients, an improvement in the lodging situation was observed. As a result of the first study, quality monitoring led to an improvement of the structures that promote spare time interests. Social contacts and coping with everyday life showed sustainable achievements.

These achievements can be interpreted as a result of the comparably long time of exposure to social learning within the therapeutic milieu of the day hospital. This hypothesis of a positive correlation between the sustainability of the outcome and the length of treatment must be validated by another study.