Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T15:44:57.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What was good about admission to an aged psychiatry ward? The subjective experiences of patients with depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2007

Penelope A. Pollitt  and
Daniel W. O'Connor
Penelope A. Pollitt*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Australia
Daniel W. O'Connor
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Australia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. P A Pollitt, Aged Mental Health Research Unit, Kingston Centre, Warrigal Road, Cheltenham, Victoria 3192, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9265 1700; Fax: +61 3 9265 1711. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: The treatment of depression in Australian aged psychiatry units has been found to be effective in terms of symptom improvement and readmission rates. There is little information, however, about how such hospitalization is viewed by the patients themselves. While users' views are increasingly seen as important for the evaluation of mental health services and for improving outcomes, the views of older patients are less likely to be sought. In this study, former patients were asked about their experience of admission, which aspects were helpful and which were not. Negative experiences have been described in an earlier paper. This paper focuses on what study participants considered to be the positive aspects of their time in hospital.

Methods: Fifty former patients from three Melbourne hospitals were interviewed in their own homes using a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire.

Results: Forty-six percent expressed an overall favorable view of their hospital stay; 34% had some reservations; and 20% had a poor overall view. Favorable views did not necessarily preclude distressing incidents or complaints but were associated with the ward environment, experienced as a safe haven; the re-evaluation of negative experiences; and, in most but not all cases, recovery.

Conclusions: Retrospective accounts are useful for understanding the ways in which hospital experience is processed. Remembering the experience as positive is, in itself, a good therapeutic outcome. In addition, it may influence readiness to seek future treatment, help prevent relapse, and, indirectly, be helpful to others with similar problems.

Keywords

psychogeriatric hospitalizationdepressionpatient attitudesqualitative evidence
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , June 2008 , pp. 628 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV, 4th edn. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Applegate, M. and Morse, J. M. (1994). Personal privacy and interactional patterns in a nursing home. Journal of Aging Studies, 8, 413–434.Google Scholar
Barnes, M. and Wistow, G. (1994). Learning to hear voices: listening to users of mental health services. Journal of Mental Health, 3, 525–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beekman, A. T. F., Copeland, J. R. M. and Prince, M. J. (1999). Review of community prevalence of depression in later life. British Journal of Psychiatry, 174, 307–311.Google Scholar
Blank, K., Fogel, D., Robison, J. and Gruman, C. (2000). Late-life depression: a naturalistic study of inpatient treatment. Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 6, 249–260.Google Scholar
Cohen, L. J. (1994). Psychiatric hospitalization as an experience of trauma. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 8, 78–81.Google Scholar
Davidson, L. and Strauss, J. S. (1992). Sense of self in recovery from severe mental illness. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 65, 131–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Draper, B. and Low, L.-F. (2005). What is the effectiveness of acute hospital treatment of older people with mental disorders? International Psychogeriatrics, 17, 539–555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glaser, B. and Strauss, A. L. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Hansson, L., Berglund, M., Lijenkrantz, C. and Andersson, G. (1985). Patient attitudes in short-term psychiatric care. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 72, 193–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalman, T. P. (1983). An overview of patient satisfaction with psychiatric treatment. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 34, 48–54.Google ScholarPubMed
Lovell, K. (1995). User satisfaction with in-patient mental health services. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2, 143–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGorry, P. D., Chanen, A., McCarthy, E., Van Reil, R., McKenzie, D. and Singh, B. S. (1991). Posttraumatic stress disorder following recent-onset psychosis: an unrecognized postpsychotic syndrome. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 253–258.Google Scholar
McIntyre, K., Farrell, M. and David, A. (1989). In-patient psychiatric care: the patient's view. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 62, 249–255.Google Scholar
Meyer, H., Taiminen, T., Vuori, T., Aijala, A. and Helenius, H. (1999). Posttraumatic stress disorder related to psychosis and acute involuntary hospitalization in schizophrenic and delusional patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 187, 343–352.Google Scholar
MIND (2004). Mind Ward Watch Report. Available on line at www.mind.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/342E9A90-CF17-4E5C-8BC5-C43C9621EA50/0/summaryfinal.pdsf (last accessed 13 March 2006).Google Scholar
Müller, M. J., Schlösser, R., Kapp-Steen, G. and Schanz, B. (2002). Patients' satisfaction with psychiatric treatment: comparison between an open and a closed ward. Psychiatric Quarterly, 73, 93–107.Google Scholar
Mueser, K. T. and Rosenberg, S. D. (2003). Treating the trauma of first episode psychosis: a PTSD perspective. Journal of Mental Health, 12, 103–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollitt, P. A. and O'Connor, D. W. (2007). Are patients with severe depression traumatized by admission to an aged psychiatry ward? International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 115–123.Google Scholar
Riordan, J. and Mockler, D. (1996). Audit of care programming in an acute psychiatric admission ward for the elderly. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 11, 109–118.3.0.CO;2-V>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, A., Pilgrim, D. and Lacy, R. (1993). Experiencing Psychiatry: Users' Views of Services. London, MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, K., McFarlane, A. and Bookless, C. (1997). The phenomenology of traumatic reactions to psychotic illness. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 185, 434–441.Google Scholar
Wattis, J. P., Butler, A., Martin, C. and Sumner, T. (1994). Outcome of admission to an acute psychiatric facility for older people: a pluralistic evaluation. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 9, 835–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, R. M. (1981). Mental patients' attitudes toward hospital staff: a review of quantitative research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 483–489.Google Scholar