The predictive power of discharged patients’ prospective evaluations of their ability to re-adjust

Objective: Intensive efforts are made to discharge patients successfully after mental health hospitalisation. However, there is limited knowledge about the usefulness of patients’ subjective assessments of their ability to adjust after discharge, and especially, the potential benefits of combining scales.Method: One week before discharge, 107 inpatients (aged 19–65 years), mostly hospitalized for schizophrenia (63%), were individually interviewed and completed the following scales: Sense of Coherence, Adaptability, Adjustment, Patients’ perceptions of hospitalisation, and background data. Three months later, discharged patients reported on (a) attendance at the regional outpatient clinic for follow-up and (b) re-hospitalisation in a mental health (MH) hospital.Results: The study findings indicate that the number of prior hospitalisations and the patient's subjective satisfaction with the hospitalisation significantly contributed to predicting later maladjustment. Additionally, patients’ responses to the Adjustment Scale retrospectively predicted their satisfaction with hospitalisation.Discussion: Patients’ subjective evaluation of their hospitalisation experience appears to be partly influenced by their prospective assessment of their ability to re-adjust after discharge. Therefore, it is valuable to explore the utility of a combined measure that includes ongoing data collection of patients’ hospitalisation experiences and their feelings of readiness for discharge, which could help reduce re-hospitalisation rates.