Integrated Care, Recovery-Consistent Care Features, and Quality of Life for Patients With Serious Mental Illness

The goal of this study was to evaluate relationships between recovery-supportive and integrated care features with health-related quality of life for veterans with serious mental illness.

Data were utilized from several national Veterans Affairs (VA) databases for 2,394 patients with serious mental illness from 107 VA sites. Regressions evaluated relationships between health-related quality of life and care features.

Higher quality of life in regard to general health was associated with sites that offered peer support (β=1.79, p<.01) and with patients’ increased understanding of their treatment (β=.80, p<.01), whereas lower quality of life was associated with sites with colocated general medical and mental health care providers (β=–1.37, p<.05) and family psychoeducation (β=–1.41, p<.05). Care at sites with vocational rehabilitation (β=1.38, p<.05), peer support (β=1.85, p<.05), and colocated providers (β=1.60, p<.05) and patients’ increased understanding of care (β=.82, p<.01) were all associated with increased mental health quality of life, whereas reduced mental health quality of life was associated with care at sites with social skills training (β=–1.48, p<.05) or increased levels of care collaboration between primary care and mental health providers (β=–.27, p<.01).

Recovery-oriented care might be associated with increased health-related quality of life among patients with serious mental illness.