The shift of hospital-based to community-based mental health care, introduced the need to assess and promote quality of residential services.

This RCT aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a staff training intervention to improve quality of care in residential facilities.

Twenty-three units with at least 12-hour on-site staff support per day in Portugal were assessed with the quality instrument for rehabilitative care (QuIRC) filled online by the manager. A random sample of service users were interviewed using standardised measures of autonomy, experiences of care, quality of life, and the time user diary (TUD) for level of activity. The intervention group units (n = 12) received workshops and a four-week hands-on training of the staff versus TAU in the control group (n = 11). All units and users were reassessed at 8-months. The staff knowledge gained during the workshops was assessed using pre- post-test. Generalized linear mixed effects models were used.

The residential units were mainly in the community (n = 17, 73.9%), and had QuIRC mean scores above 50% in the following dimensions : living environment, self-management and autonomy, social inclusion, and human rights. Service users’ level of activity (TUD) at 8-months did not differ between intervention and control groups. At 8 months, all QuIRC dimensions scored higher in the Intervention group, without reaching statistical significance. Pre- post-tests comparison showed a significant increase in the knowledge acquired by the staff.

The intervention had impact on the staff's knowledge without reaching significant change of users’ activity and quality of care of the units.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.