IMPROVING THE CONTAINER: WARD COMMUNITY GROUPS AND THE MODERN ACUTE PSYCHIATRIC IN-PATIENT SETTING

摘要

Ward community groups have been mostly lost from acute psychiatric in-patient settings in recent years with changes related to care in the community and altered therapeutic expectations. This paper outlines the re-introduction of ward community groups to such a setting and, by using the quantitative measure of patient complaints and qualitative observations, offers evidence for their usefulness as a therapeutic medium, beneficial to the acute psychiatric in-patient ward, and as a container for disturbed states.