What Patients With Severe Mental Illness Transitioning From Hospital to Community Have to Say About Care and Shared Decision-Making

Abstract

Shared decision-making (SDM) has been slow to disseminate in mental health. We conducted focus groups with ten individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) treated in a 90 day, outpatient transitional care clinic. Parallel groups were held with family caregivers (n = 8). Individuals with SMI wanted longer visits, to have their stories heard, more information about options presented simply, to hear from peers about similar experiences, and a bigger say in treatment choices. Caregivers wanted to be invited to participate to a larger extent. Results suggest that after a decade, SDM may not have the expected penetration in community mental health.