Treatment conditions and discharge from the viewpoint of the therapist and patient--on the follow-up of former patients of a social psychiatric model institution
Bosch, G.; Steinhart, I.
Psychiatrische Praxis 12(2): 55-62
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0303-4259 PMID: 3991819 Document Number: 258925
An interview conducted with former patients verified whether or not the reasons for being discharged from hospital coincided with those of the therapists. There was only agreement in approximately 50% of the cases according to whether the patients demanded to be released or whether their discharge was ordered by the hospital. Agreement was found to be greater particularly in cases where further treatment was not considered to be necessary by the patients and where patients were assigned to medical treatment elsewhere. There was more agreement in cases where further care was regarded as not necessary by both--therapists and patients. Patients who believed that they themselves had terminated treatment judged the hospital in a more negative light, as was to be expected. Agreement was high between therapists and patient regarding the treatment which was conducted afterwards. In this case medical records transpired to be very reliable. The question why a model setting, which aims at a high consensus among the medical staff and patients, attains only limited agreement on the reasons and necessity for discharge from hospital, is discussed.