The therapeutic relationship and patients’ experience of interpersonal bonds – research conducted in outpatient mental health care

Aim. To study the therapeutic relationship in community mental health care, in terms of patients’ socioeconomic status and their experience of interpersonal bonds.Method. Research study included patients treated in community mental health care (N=64) who met the criteria for psychosis, and the professionals who managed their treatment. Patients’ psychotic symptoms were measured with the use of the PANSS scale, whereas the STAR scale was used to assess the therapeutic relationship, in separate models for evaluating patients and clinicians. The patients’ socioeconomic data was collected, as was information about the therapists.Results. Patients’ experience of bonds, understood as a current or past marriage or parenthood, correlated positively with their views on the therapeutic relationship. Patients assessed therapeutic relationships more favourably than their therapists. Therapists assessed the therapeutic relationship in the “positive clinicianinput” dimension more favourably than did financially independent patients.Conclusions. Patients’ experience of interpersonal bonds enhances their chances of establishing a successful therapeutic relationship and it also contributes to establishing a good therapeutic relationship in the opinion of therapists.