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The implementation of therapeutic community principles in acute care psychiatric hospital settings: An empirical analysis and recommendations to clinicians
Author(s) -
Hansen James T.,
Slevin Christopher
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4679(199611)52:6<673::aid-jclp9>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - therapeutic community , psychology , milieu therapy , psychiatry , scale (ratio) , psychotherapist , quantum mechanics , physics
We applied therapeutic community principles to a contemporary acute care psychiatric treatment program and investigated the effects upon milieu treatment variables using the Ward Atmosphere Scale (WAS) as a measure. Significant differences were found between experimental and control units on several scales of the WAS following the introduction of program changes. These differences indicated that the introduction of therapeutic community principles in treatment programming enhanced milieu factors that are conducive to patient recovery. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.