At home or in hospital?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
At home or in hospital: what do service users prefer and how satisfied are they with their treatment?
IRAS ID
343149
Contact name
Allerdiena Hubbeling
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
South West London and St. George's Mental Health NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
The NHS started home treatment teams in England at the beginning of the 21st century. These teams offer intensive support at home, so that people spend less time in a psychiatric hospital or are not admitted at all. Home Treatment Teams provide medical, practical and psychological treatment. One of the reasons for introducing home treatment teams was the belief that service users would prefer treatment in their own homes.
Initial questionnaire studies suggested that service users were more satisfied with receiving treatment at home. However, more recent and rigorous studies did not find a difference. These studies did not directly ask what patients preferred: home or hospital treatment. They only measured patient satisfaction.
In this study, people under a home treatment team will be asked about their satisfaction with treatment. They will also be asked whether they would have preferred to go to a hospital instead of receiving treatment at home. In this study research participants must have experience with hospital treatment.
Potential participants will be approached around the time of discharge from the home treatment team and they will be asked similar questions again after three months.
We will collect information from the notes, such as age, sex, ethnicity, symptoms, diagnosis, medication, and information about the patients past hospital stay. We will ask whether patients would have preferred to go to hospital instead of receiving home treatment, and we will administer the same questionnaire as used in previous studies to measure patient satisfaction. We will also ask whether there are any problems at home such as difficult family relationships and we will administer a standard questionnaire about the amount of social contacts people have.
Finally, we will ask whether patients are willing to take part in a similar survey in 6 months time. We are doing this because patients' views may change.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0241
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jan 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion