A new self-report questionnaire called "ABC" to evaluate in a clinical practice the aid perceived from services by relatives, needs and family burden of severe mental illness.

Objective: To describe: a) a self-report questionnaire of 34 item, developed by a Family Association of Psychiatric Patients in collaboration with two psychiatrists to evaluate by key-relative in a clinical practice the perceived quality of mental health services, the needs and family burden; b) the methodology of validation.

Methods: It has been studied (a) the Face Validity by two focus groups of 10 relatives for each group, (b) the concurrent validity of family burden items comparing the ABC with QPF, a widely used questionnaire, in 6 Italian mental health centres on a sample of key-relatives, (c) the discriminant validity comparing three different samples of key-relatives of patients with psychiatric illness, Alzheimer or cancer. The internal consistency of items for assessing relatives' opinions on the quality of care has been evaluated by Chronbach' s alpha.

Job satisfaction among mental health professionals in Rome, Italy.

Although various surveys on job satisfaction have been performed in mental health care settings, no studies have investigated in-depth the level of satisfaction with the various aspects of work in Italian mental health services. In the present study, all clinical mental health staff working in a large psychiatric catchment area in Rome were invited to anonymously complete a previously validated questionnaire designed to measure job satisfaction among mental health professionals. Of the total 236 health professionals, 196 (83%) agreed to participate.

Patients' and relatives' satisfaction with psychiatric services in a large catchment area in Rome.

Objective: To assess the satisfaction of patients and their relatives with psychiatric care and to identify variables associated with any dissatisfaction.

Methods: The study was performed in a defined psychiatric catchment area in south Rome, Italy. All eligible patients and relatives who had contacts with services during a predefined period were asked to participate.