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Ward environment and disturbed behaviour

1982; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 12; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s003329170004664x

1469-8978

Nick Bouras, Tom Trauer, J. P. Watson,

Mental Health and Psychiatry

Synopsis Disturbed behaviour and dissatisfaction were studied in relation to two contrasting ward environments, one representing the ‘medical model’ of psychiatry and the other being a modified form of ‘therapeutic community’. Specially designed forms were used for 18 months to obtain daily and weekly measures of behavioural disturbance from the nurses and of dissatisfaction with various aspects of the ward environment from the patients. The results suggested that the ‘therapeutic community’ ward was significantly more disturbed, and that disturbance on that ward varied according to the day of the week, something which did not happen on the ‘medical model’ ward. Differences in disturbance between diagnoses were also found. Disturbance was significantly correlated with, and tended to precede, dissatisfaction only in the ‘therapeutic community’ ward.