Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:19:47.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A new unit for long-stay psychiatric patients: organization, attitudes and quality of care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

P. A. Garety*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
I. Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1 Address for correspondence: Ms Philippa Garety Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.

Synopsis

The present study describes and evaluates aspects of care in a new residential unit for chronic patients. The findings suggest that the unit is relatively resident-orientated in its management practices and that the staff are similarly orientated in their attitudes. Staff also hold generally optimistic attitudes to residents' potential accomplishments and consider themselves highly involved in decision-making. They also show high levels of positive interactions with the residents. Various aspects of staff attitudes and behaviour are positively correlated with seniority or length of time on the unit. The results are discussed in terms of the unit's organizational structure and its possible impact on residents' functioning.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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

Apte, R. Z. (1968). Halfway Houses: A New Dilemma in Institutional Care. Occasional Papers on Social Administration. G. Bell & Sons: London.Google Scholar
Bennett, D. H. (1978). Social forms of psychiatric treatment. In Schizophrenia: Towards a New Synthesis (ed. Wing, J. K.), pp. 211231. Academic Press: London.Google Scholar
Bennett, D. H. (1980). The chronic psychiatric patient today. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 73, 301303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. (1973). The mental hospital as an institution. Social Science and Medicine 7, 407424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caine, T. M. & Smail, D. J. (1968). Attitudes of psychiatric nurses to their role in treatment. British Journal of Medical Psychology 41, 193197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health and Social Security (1975). Better Services for the Mentally Ill. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Grant, G. W. B. (1974). An examination of care patterns in subnormality hospitals with differing resource levels. Unpublished doctoral dissertation: Department of Management Services, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.Google Scholar
Hall, J. N. (1974). Inter-rater reliability of ward rating scales. British Journal of Psychiatry 125, 248255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, J. N., Baker, R. D. & Hutchinson, K. (1977). A controlled evaluation of token economy procedures with chronic schizophrenic patients. Behaviour Research and Therapy 15, 261283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, J. M., Veit, S. W., Allen, G. J. & Chinsky, J. M. (1974). Aide resident ratio and ward population density as mediators of social interaction. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 72, 320326.Google Scholar
Hewett, S. & Ryan, P. (1975). Alternatives to living in psychiatric hospitals – A pilot study. British Journal of Hospital Medicine 14, 6570.Google Scholar
King, R. D. (1972). Alternatives to the hospital in the residential care of the mentally handicapped. In Roots of Evaluation: The Epidemiological Basis for Planning Psychiatric Services (ed. Wing, J. K. and Häfner, H.), pp. 197212. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
King, R. D., Raynes, N. V. & Tizard, J. (1971). Patterns of Residential Care. Routledge and Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. (1981). The role of the nurse in the maintenence of long-stay and new long-stay patients. In Handbook of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (ed. Wing, J. K. and Morris, B.), pp. 3140. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Lipinski, D. & Nelson, R. (1974). Problems of the use of naturalistic observation as a means of behaviour assessment. Behavior Therapy 5, 341351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, S. A. & Cree, W. (1976). ‘New’ long-stay patients: a national sample survey of 15 mental hospitals in England and Wales 1972/3. Psychological Medicine 6, 603616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormick, M., Balla, D. & Zigler, E. (1975). Resident care practices in institutions for retarded persons: A cross institutional cross cultural study. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 80, 117.Google Scholar
Moores, B. & Grant, G. W. B. (1976). Nurse expectations for accomplishment of mentally retarded patients. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 80, 644649.Google ScholarPubMed
Moores, B. & Grant, G. W. B. (1977). Optimists and pessimists: Attitudes of nursing staff towards the development potential of mentally handicapped patients in their charge. International Journal of Nursing Studies 14, 1318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Donnell, C. R. (1980) Environmental design. In Psychological Problems: The Social Context (ed. Feldman, P. and Orford, J.), pp. 279309. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester.Google Scholar
Oppenheim, A. N. (1955). The Function and Training of Mental Nurses. Chapman and Hall: London.Google Scholar
Otto, S. & Orford, J. (1978). Not Quite Like Home – Small Hostels for Alcoholics and Others. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester.Google Scholar
Phillips, J. P. N. (1970). A further type of personal questionnaire technique. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 9, 388–346.Google ScholarPubMed
Poole, D. A., Sanson-Fisher, R. W. & Thompson, V. (1981). Observations on the behaviour of patients in a state mental hospital and a general hospital psychiatric unit: A comparative study. Behaviour Research and Therapy 19, 125134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raynes, N. V., Pratt, M. W. & Roses, S. (1979). Organizational Structure and the Care of the Mentally Retarded. Croom Helm: London.Google Scholar
Richardson, A. (1977). Organization and interaction in psychiatric day centres. Unpublished M.Phil dissertation: University of London.Google Scholar
Segal, S. P. & Moyles, E. W. (1979). Management style and institutional dependency in sheltered care. Social Psychiatry 14, 159165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, M. B. (1961). A method of measuring psychological changes specific to the individual psychiatric patient. British Journal of Medical Psychology 34, 151155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, G. (1980). The treatment of social difficulties in special environments. In Psychological Problems: The Social Context (ed. Feldman, P. and Orford, J.), pp. 249278. John Wiley and Sons: Chichester.Google Scholar
Shepherd, G. & Richardson, A. (1979). Organisation and interaction in psychiatric day centres. Psychological Medicine 9, 572579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sinclair, I. & Snow, D. (1971). After-care hostels receiving a Home Office grant. In Explorations in After Care. Home Office Research Studies No. 9. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. & Brown, G. W. (1970). Institutionalisation and Schizophrenia. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wykes, T. (1982). A hostel-ward for ‘new’ long-stay patients: an evaluative study of ‘a ward in a house’. In Long-Term Community Care: Experience in a London Borough (ed. Wing, J. K.), pp. 5797. Psychological Medicine Monograph Supplement 2.Google Scholar