194 Chapter 7 indicating that participation in social network interventions leads to beneficial experiences among volunteers (Botero-Rodríguez et al., 2021; Burn, Chevalier, Leverton, & Priebe, 2020; McCorkle et al., 2009). Value for care The social network intervention proved more effective in reducing the duration of hospitalization and criminal behavior in forensic outpatients, which are considered relevant treatment outcomes in forensic psychiatric care (chapter 5). The findings showed that patients receiving usual care were hospitalized 2.1 times more days within 12 months after baseline, compared to patients in the additive intervention, and that this effect increased over 18 months. Furthermore, patients in the usual care group reported 2.9 times more criminal behaviors on average over time, with a stronger effect when groups were compared at 18 months. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to demonstrate benefits of an additive informal social network intervention on hospitalization duration and criminal behavior in forensic psychiatric outpatients. However, caution is warranted given the significant dropout rate in patients receiving the additive intervention, which likely affected treatment effectiveness. Nevertheless, these findings are in line with the broader literature on the effectiveness of social network interventions among psychiatric patients, which also indicated benefits on mental healthcare adherence, consisting of outcomes regarding treatment satisfaction, adherence, and consumption (chapter 2). For hospitalization, positive effects have been previously demonstrated in other types of social network interventions (i.e., peer support and community-based family support interventions) that shared the primary aim of providing support to psychiatric patients and patients with reoccurring hospitalizations (O'Connell et al., 2018, 2020; Sledge et al., 2011; Villemoes et al., 2018). Furthermore, the positive effects on criminal behavior found in the current study are consistent with research on mentoring interventions among forensic populations (Duwe, 2018b; Duwe & King, 2013; Raposa et al., 2019; Tolan et al., 2014). Therefore, this dissertation encourages the use of interventions aimed at strengthening supportive social networks in the community to improve forensic psychiatric care (chapter 2, 4, and 5). In addition to the value for forensic psychiatric care, we would like to briefly elaborate on the potential value for society. Although we have not objectified the value for society, the reduction of criminal behavior in forensic outpatients receiving a social network intervention in addition to usual care could translate into lower costs of crime and greater safety in society. Moreover, although cautiously, the research in this dissertations could be considered a counterargument to the potency of imprisonment, as forensic outpatient
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjY0ODMw