Hospitalized African American Men with Mental Illness: Some Antecedents to Service Satisfaction and Intent to Comply with Aftercare

Abstract

Abstract The three objectives of this study were to evaluate antecedents to (1) male African Americans' satisfaction with in-patient mental health service provision, (2) their willingness to attend aftercare appointments upon discharge from the hospital, and (3) their primary therapists' satisfaction with the services they provided to these African American men. Subjects were 86 African American men who were recruited from the admissions unit of a psychiatric hospital serving a rural population from the Deep South. Results indicated that the only significant determinant of service satisfaction and intent to comply with aftercare was perceived staff empathy. Primary therapists' satisfaction with their own service provision included increased quality of life and reduction in symptomatology on the part of the subjects.