Schizophrenia sufferers and their carers: a survey of understanding of the condition and its treatment, and of satisfaction with services.

This paper reports a simple random survey of all identifiable schizophrenia sufferers, not in long-term residential or hospital care in one Health Board area. The survey was carried out (1) to assess service users' and carers' understanding of the illness, and (2) to assess perceptions of services by people with schizophrenia and their carers. A response rate of 55.6% from a sample of 142 was achieved; 79 service users and 22 carers were interviewed. In general service users reported a limited understanding of the condition of schizophrenia and its treatment. Many reported an understanding that was either neutral or negative, as assessed by the Knowledge about Schizophrenia Interview'. Carers generally had a more positive understanding of the condition than the user group, but considerable scope for improvement by educational intervention remained. It was found that people with schizophrenia generally perceived the service in a positive light, but had specific dissatisfaction with regard to medication, vocational training and hospitalization. Both service users and carers were dissatisfied with information and advice from professionals and identified these as areas that require improvement. On the whole carers expressed less satisfaction with services than did people with schizophrenia.