On Factors Complicating Rehabilitation of Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

Judging by previous studies, the factors most seriously complicating the rehabilitation of psychiatric patients include the underdeveloped state of society, the symptoms and detrimental consequences of the patients' disorders, the harmful consequences of prolonged institutionalization and the problems associated with home and family. The sample of this study consisted of 104 patients who were under treatment at the University Psychiatric Clinic, Helsinki, on November 30, 1971. No old people or children were included. The subjects' educational and intellectual levels were above average, and the proportion of patients with grave disorders in the sample was smaller than in psychiatric hospitals in general. The sample included no addicts. The attending doctor filled out, for each subject, a questionnaire, on which information was provided about the subject's psychosocial background, recommendations made for his treatment and rehabilitation, and the most serious obstacles to his rehabilitation were assessed. A number of “recommendation” and “obstacle” alternatives were listed in the form, from which 4 and 5 respectively of the most important were chosen. The patients' psychic disorders, problems associated with their families and homes, unrealistic hopes and expectations, and lack of motivation proved the most serious obstacles to rehabilitation. Typical of all these is their somewhat individual-centred nature. They were apparently linked with the reasons why the patients had come to hospital for treatment and with the rehabilitational goals the respondents had had in mind. Obstacles that can be characterized as social were of little significance, housing problems being the only exception here. The authors feel that caution should be observed in drawing generalized conclusions from these results, because the results of studies on rehabilitation are in general closely tied up with the population or sample studied as well as the environment and society.