Independent housing and support for people with severe mental illness: systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To systematically explore the outcomes of Independent Housing and Support (IHS) for people with severe mental disorders when compared to other residential settings. METHOD: Systematic review of Randomised and Non-Randomised Controlled Trials of publications that analyse the outcomes of living in independent settings versus institutionalised accommodation. Risk of bias assessment was adapted from the Cochrane Collaboration's ACROBAT-Tool. The analysis was conducted separately for publications with homeless and non-homeless people. RESULTS: Twenty-four publications from studies with homeless people and eight publications from studies with non-homeless people were included. Risk of bias was much lower in studies with the homeless. No RCT was found in the sample of publications with the non-homeless. Overall, results from Independent Housing and Support-settings are not inferior to results from institutionalised settings. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that Independent Housing and Support-settings provide at least similar outcomes than residential care. We propose that clients' preferences should determine the choice of housing setting.