Psychosocial Outcomes of Supported Living for People with Severe Mental Illness: A One Year Evaluation of Floating Outreach in Germany

Supported living plays an important role in the community-based care for people with mental illness. However, support services like floating outreach have hardly been the subject of longer-term research to date, especially with regard to Germany. Thus, the main aim of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the psychosocial outcomes of floating outreach support for non-homeless people with severe mental illness across a one-year period. In a group of n = 119 people (M = 41 years old, 36% with affective disorders) the quantitative analyses revealed significant improvements in quality of life (MANSA), overall social functioning (SFS), as well as general support and care needs (CAN-EU). Nevertheless, there were still some unmet (and even increasing) care needs among the respondents after one year, especially in the domains of "physical health" and "company of others". These findings therefore indicate areas of support that should be given more attention in the future.