MOTIVATION OF THE CHRONIC MENTAL PATIENT
PETER A. PEFFER M. D.1
1 Manager, Veterans Administration Hospital, Brockton, Mass.
1. Preliminary findings suggest that the member-employee program is of value as a method of rehabilitation. It is of special value in motivating chronic institutional patients to work toward their own rehabilitation.
2. In certain instances it makes a significant contribution to the rehabilitation of acute patients.
3. As a logical extension of present rehabilitation programs in hospitals it serves as a link between those programs and the community, tying the two together.
4. A wide variety of occupational activities can be utilized in this program thus broadening the scope of rehabilitation measures. Moreover, the types of positions filled by member-employees bear much closer resemblance to jobs in the community than do conventional hospital activities.
5. Flexibility in the administration of such a program is indispensable. It must be adapted to the cultural setting of the hospital in which it is established. Thus the program will not take the same form in each hospital but will have features unique to the respective hospitals.
6. Preliminary statistical evidence suggests that a large number of these memberemployees are able to adjust to the extramural community after a varied tenure on the program, and, further, while on memberemployee status they are making a higher level adjustment intramurally for mental patients than was previously possible. Considering that patients chosen for this program are mainly those with long histories of mental illness and hospitalized, these findings are encouraging. Further controlled research is needed.
