Patient work programs a decade after Souder v Brennan: a survey of selected private psychiatric hospitals.

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a survey of 13 private psychiatric hospitals conducted in the summer and fall of 1984. The survey, which consisted of separate, structured interviews with each hospitals chief psychiatrist (or designee), rehabilitation or work activities specialist, and patient rights advocate (or equivalent), sought to determine professional opinion as to the value of work programs for hospitalized psychiatric patients and the impact of Souder v Brennan on hospital programs and patient treatment. The survey revealed that most respondents believed work programs to be beneficial; that they insisted that the purpose of such programs should be patient treatment, not hospital maintenance; and that they felt that the Souder decision had hampered the ability of hospitals to provide treatment and consequently should be modified to allow for expanded work programs and opportunities for patients. The survey also indicated that shorter hospital stays and more intensive treatments had shifted the dominant focus of work treatment from symptom relief and chronic occupation to training for discharge; and it pointed to the existence of subtle differences in the perception of patient work programs between psychiatric and rehabilitative staff members.