A literature review of service models and evidence relating to community-based supported accommodation services for adults with severe mental health problems in the UK

ABSTRACT

Objective

Mental health supported accommodation services are uniquely placed to help maximise patient autonomy and empowerment, facilitate social and community integration, and promote recovery. These services, however, remain under researched and service users still report unmet needs concerning health, work, social relations, and daily activities.

Methods

This literature review aimed to identify and evaluate studies focusing on dimensions of recovery within UK supported accommodation services for people with severe and persisting mental health problems. Seventeen studies were included in this review reporting on a total of 3,734 service users living in various supported accommodation settings.

Results

Overall, the nature and the extent of support provided by services varied considerably. Some studies indicated that the quality of care provided by services was associated with improvements in service users’ recovery, autonomy, and experiences of care, but the level or intensity of support was not associated.

Conclusions

Findings were not consistent and, overall, methodological differences across studies failed to provide strong supporting evidence. This highlights an ongoing challenge within supported accommodation environments, of ensuring a balance between their function to provide a place where people feel safe and supported, alongside being a recovery focused and enabling environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Supported accommodation
• supported housing
• rehabilitation
• recovery
• effectiveness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author’s contributions

All authors contributed to the review article. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Dr Evgenia Stefanopoulou, and all authors, commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2024.2331451.