Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:29-34
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Mental patients' attitudes toward hospitalization: a neglected aspect of hospital tenure
RE Drake and MA Wallach
Cambridge Hospital, Mass.
Recent research on hospital tenure has neglected mental patients' attitudes
toward hospitalization. The authors consider problems with past research on
these attitudes and examine "living preference"--the patient's preference
for living in the hospital or the community. Assessments of patients'
living preferences were obtained from clinicians working with 187
chronically mentally ill patients in a state hospital aftercare program.
These assessments strongly predicted both components of hospital
tenure--rehospitalization and in-hospital days--during a 1-year follow-up.
The authors point out the conceptual, heuristic, and practical clinical
advantages of examining living preference rather than traditional
correlates of hospital tenure.
