Measuring the subjective well-being of people in a psychosocial rehabilitation center and a residential psychiatric setting - The outline of the study and the measurement properties of a multidimensional indicator of well-being

The outline of an ongoing outcome research project in a day rehabilitation center and in a residential psychiatric setting (with respectively 156 and 86 participants at baseline) in Bruges (Belgium) is presented The study is first characterized fry its emphasis on subjective well-being. Subjective w ell-being is considered to refer to more than satisfaction with specific do mains of life, or the absence of psychiatric complaints. Attention is paid to feelings of empowerment, sense of control, feelings of joy and enthusias m, and global self-esteem. Various aspects of the social relations of the p articipants and their satisfaction with services are also assessed. Second, the investigation is based on a longitudinal design with intake interviews , retest interviews during and at the end of the rehabilitation programs, a nd a follow-up interviews Finally, specific efforts are made to ground the outcome measures in sociological theories of mental health to make a theory driven evaluation possible. After presenting the rationale of the research project some preliminary results are given, mainly confined to the determi nation of the reliability the construct validity, and the sensitivity to ch ange of the various indicators of well-being.