Group Climate and Quality of Life in Long-Term Forensic Care: Do Patients and Staff Agree?

Abstract

The relationship between quality of life (QoL) and group climate is a complex but crucial topic within forensic psychiatry. The QoL of forensic psychiatric patients is influenced by internal and external factors, with group climate potentially assuming a pivotal role in this process. This study aims to gain insight into the relationship between group climate and QoL in a long-term forensic ward in Belgium. Patients (n = 29) completed the Forensic Inpatient Quality of Life Questionnaire—Short Version (FQL-SV), the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES) and the Group Climate Inventory Revised (GCI-R), staff members (n = 22) completed the FQL-SV and the EssenCES. The agreement between QoL rated by patients and staff, the agreement with the current group climate, and the relationships between QoL and group climate were investigated. Overall, the results indicated a high QoL and a positive group climate. Compared with patients, staff members were assigned significantly lower scores on the QoL scale, but no significant differences were found with regard to group climate. A number of facets of group climate correlated positively with perceived QoL. In conclusion, it seems important for forensic institutions to prioritize a positive and enhanced group climate in long-term forensic wards, given the potential correlation with the QoL of patients.

Keywords

Quality of life / Group climate / Forensic psychiatry / Long-stay / Inpatients

Acknowledgments

We thank all the patients and staff that participated in the study.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization and design of the study, A.B., S.D., I.J. and S.P.; Material preparation, data collection and analysis, A.B.; first draft of the manuscript, A.B. and V.V.B. All authors commented on previous version of the manuscript, and read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics Statement

This was a retrospective study. Therefore, according to Belgian law, the study did not require ethical approval.

Informed Consent Statement

Since this was a retrospective study, an informed consent was not required.

Data Availability Statement

The research data is available on reasonable request.

Funding

V.V.B. and S.D. received funds from “Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek GGZ Broeders van Liefde”.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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