| Summary: | Although development and growth of assisted living (AL) services for the severely mentally ill (SMI) has lasted for decades,
and is still ongoing, research on AL services is scarce. Furthermore, the broad variation in AL service models, lack of global
taxonomy for AL services and inconsistent reporting of AL service habitants makes the evaluation and comparison of AL
services challenging. The purpose of the current study was, for the first time in Finland, to evaluate the applicability of the
international Simple Taxonomy for Supported Accommodation (STAX-SA) for recategorization of current national AL
service categories for the mentally ill. Data for the study is obtained from the Porvoo ASPA-project. Our main finding was
that the correspondence to STAX-SA categorization was good, as 64.7% of the AL service levels could directly be classified
to certain STAX-SA types. The strength of STAX-SA categorization was the ability to describe the majority of the 24-hour
and part-time service units. STAX-SA ability to describe AL services weakened as the level of AL service decreased but
remained reasonable. STAX-SA as a methodological tool has potential in enabling comparative studies on AL services based
on the level they provide. STAX-SA has strengths in describing AL units and the services provided in them, especially by
differentiating custodial care units from rehabilitation units in AL.
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