RESUMO
Although self-help groups are recognized as an important part of the continuum of services in the mental health system, confusion about what constitutes a self-help group remains. The authors outline seven criteria for defining the self-help group and differentiating it from other types of groups, such as advocacy or support groups. Self-help groups are distinguished by their supportive and educational aims, focus on a single life-disrupting event, primary purpose of supporting personal change, anonymous and confidential nature, voluntary membership, member leadership, and absence of a profit orientation. Eight basic principles underlying successful self-help groups are discussed, including the shared experience of members, their acceptance of responsibility for themselves, and their commitment to personal change.
Assuntos
Grupos de Autoajuda , Adaptação Psicológica , Processos Grupais , Estrutura de Grupo , Humanos , Resolução de Problemas , Grupos de Autoajuda/organização & administração , Apoio SocialRESUMO
State hospital staff members compared 72 retarded adult patients who had been successfully placed in group homes in the community with 13 patients who had been placed but rehospitalized. No significant differences were found between the groups on the four variables of sex, age at the time of the study, age at first admission to the hospital, and time spent in the hospital. A comparison of preplacement problems listed in the patients' hospital records with the reasons for rehospitalization of the unsuccessfully placed group suggests that both hospital staff and group home parents find aggressive behaviors a problem, but that group home parents are more concerned than hospital staff with deficiencies in self-care.
Assuntos
Casas para Recuperação , Deficiência Intelectual/reabilitação , Readmissão do Paciente , Adulto , Idoso , Agressão , Serviços Comunitários de Saúde Mental , Feminino , Seguimentos , Processos Grupais , Hospitalização , Hospitais Psiquiátricos , Humanos , Tempo de Internação , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Minnesota , Morbidade , Ajustamento Social , Transtornos do Comportamento Social/complicaçõesRESUMO
A community hospital serving part of a state hospital's receiving area opened a psychiatric inpatient unit. The authors studied the impact of the new unit on the number of psychiatric admissions to the state hospital, and also sought to determine if the two facilities provided duplicate services to the area. In comparing admission rates to the state hospital before and after the opening of the community unit, they found the unit did not have a significant impact. In comparing sample groups of patients at the two hospitals, they found that each served a different socioeconomic group and therefore did not offer duplicate services.
