Evaluation of quality of life concerning chronically mentally ill patients living in community support systems

This study concerns 46 chronically mentally ill patients living in community support systems. Their quality of life was measured with a validated questionnaire : the "Subjective Quality of Life Questionnaire" ("SQLP"). Both patients and their care givers separately completed the same version of the questionnaire. This study first shows the feasibility of such inquiries with chronically mentally ill patients. It gives a description of the patient's feeling which is different from the usual medical point of view. The life domains the patient is very satisfied with are mostly restricted to food, material conditions, and relationship with the care-givers, but exclude the other relationships. Our data also allow to estimate the degree of agreement and desagreement between the care-givers and their patients.