Social approaches to mental patient care / by Morris S. Schwartz, Charlotte Green Schwartz, and Mark G. Field [and others].

  • Schwartz, Morris S.
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Social approaches to mental patient care / by Morris S. Schwartz, Charlotte Green Schwartz, and Mark G. Field [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    If volunteers are used as escorts, there is likely to be little direct impact on the social organization of the hospital itself. Problems will generally revolve around questions of scheduling or the de- eree of interference in ward routines. On the other hand, if staff members accompany patients, then this may alter their role to an appreciable degree. They are no longer guards but escorts, and they now represent the hospital. In some respects the job change in bringing them out into the world may make the situation more interesting or more pleasant for hospital personnel. On the other hand, the change may also make their jobs more difficult since the structural and environmental supports of the hospital are no longer present and the new situation may be less satisfying to old institutional hands. Usually volunteer programs are tacked on to a traditional hos- pital structure. Sometimes, however, this orientation comes to dominate the over-all perspective of the institution, in which case the potential effects on the social organization of the hospital and its relationship to the community are considerable. In extreme cases, aS in One small private hospital we visited, every effort may be bent toward preventing the hospital from becoming an inde- pendent entity fully separated from the community, and great value is placed on maintaining an intimate functional interde- pendence between the hospital and the community. As an ex- ample of this, certain recreational programs are not undertaken on the hospital grounds so that patients and staff will be forced to go into the community for their play or exercise. ‘The resulting interdependence between the hospital and the community and the associated increase in interaction are believed to help prevent the desocialization of patients. When we turn to programs that emphasize direct benefits to the community, we usually find that the services reflect the specific psychiatric function of the hospital and are directed toward com- munity mental health problems. But in a few instances more gen- eral services are provided. For example, the hospital’s beauty par- lor or its laundry may be used by residents of the community. In one private hospital, extra building space is rented to community service agencies and the gymnasium is used for practice and games by the high school basketball team. All this is quite rare, however,