IMPACT OF COMMUNITY MENTAL-HEALTH-SERVICES ON USERS SOCIAL NETWORKS -PRISM PSYCHOSIS STUDY 7

Background Social networks are important for people with severe mental illness, and services need to assess whether they succeed in improvin g social contacts. Method In a prospective controlled study, social ne twork data were obtained in an epidemiologically representative sample of people with psychotic disorders both before (Time I) and two years after (Time 2) the introduction of two sectorised community mental he alth services in south London (one intensive service with two speciali st teams, one standard service with a generic team). Results There wer e significant baseline differences between sectors with social network s being smaller in the sector later served by the intensive service. S ocial network size increased within the intensive service sector, but not in the standard service sector. There was a significant sector eff ect for the network component of relatives (intensive > standard) and in the other ('non friends') component (standard > intensive) after ad justing for baseline differences. Conclusions The findings suggest tha t the intensive sector community mental health service enhanced people 's social networks with their relatives, relative to the standard serv ice. The reverse is the case for other contacts.