This study was designed to identify the relationship between perceived social support and the mental health status of persons receiving psychiatric care as out-patients. The purpose was to contribute to the theoretical understanding of the relationship between these two concepts and eventually to the enhancement of theoretically directed nursing care. The subjects for this study were 54 patients receiving treatment for mental illness in an out-patient clinic or out-patient rehabilitation program at one of three general hospitals, a private clinic, or a social welfare institute. The data were collected from sept. 2 to 20, 1991. Perceived social support was measured by the Social Support Scale developed by Bak, Ji-Won. A questionnare developed by Derogatis, et al(1976) and modified by lee(1986) was used to measure mental health status. The data were analyzed by desciptive statistics and t-test, ANOVA, and pearson coorelation coefficients, using an S.P.S.S. program. The results of this study can be summerized as follows : 1. The mean perceived social support was 2.52 in a possible range of 0 to 4, and the major source of social support was the mother(83.3%). The major type of support was emotional(44.7%), and the frequency of contact with the supportive person ranged from once a week to once a week to once a month. 2. The mean mental health status was 0.9456 in possible range of 0 to 4. The severity of the subscales ranged down in the following order : obscession, depression, somatization, phobic anxiety, anxiety, hostility, paranoid ideation, interpersonal sensitivity, and psychosis. 3. The relationship between preceived social support and mental health status was not significant(r=-0.2124, p＜.05), but there were relationship between certain subscales of the independent and dependent variables. Variables related to appraisal support were the total mental health status(r=-0.2756, p＜.05), hostility(r=-0.2305, p＜.05), interpersonal sensitivity(r=0.2546, p＜.05), and psychosis(r=-0.3034, p＜.05). Psychosis was related to emotional support(r=-0.2332, p＜.05) and to total social support(r=-0.2300, p＜.05). For this sample, some subscales dimensions of social support may have and affect on some aspects of mental health status. Future research of these conceptual relationships is essential to the development of theoretical nursing to give direction to the planning of scientifically sound nursing care.