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A simple programme designed to counteract some of the effects of institutionalization in longterm psychiatric wards
Author(s) -
Breton Sue,
Cockram Margaret E. A.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1977.tb00199.x
Subject(s) - institutionalisation , individualism , identity (music) , nursing , psychiatry , psychology , medicine , nursing staff , political science , physics , acoustics , law
This paper shows how female, ambulant, geriatric patients in a longstay psychiatric ward, many of whom had become institutionalized and had lost much of their self‐identity and initiative, could be encouraged to become more spontaneous and individualistic. This study utilized a programme which did not involve any great financial expenditure nor extra nursing staff, and enhanced, rather than interfered with, the daily functioning of the ward. Data are presented to show that sociability and spontaneity improved on the ward concerned and that the programme proved so flexible that it has since been extended to other wards.