THE NEED FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR A BETTER COMPLIANCE AND INCREASED QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN CHRONIC-SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS

In many places in the world community care facilities for chronic schizophrenic patients are insufficient, leading to a series of complications which can even be fatal. The lack of facilities contributes to a decrease in patients' compliance. The establishing of a good community care programme for the whole disease period will also considerably increase the efficacy of relapse prevention and give the patient an acceptable quality of life, and hopefully increase the patient's compliance. There is urgent need for therapy standards to be assured and monitored according to strict evaluation criteria to produce a better interplay between the schizophrenic patient and psychiatric staff.