Psychiatric consultation to a rehabilitation program for amputees.
Staff on the rehabilitation unit for amputees at the Navy Regional Medical Center in Oakland, California, requested psychiatric consultation after a group of young patients had shown destructive behavior and resistance to the rehabilitation program. After two unsuccessful attempts at consultation, an approach was adopted in which a psychiatrist functions as a training consultant in group therapy to the orthopedic staff. The primary therapists are two orthopedic nurses, who conduct two weekly therapy sessions for the amputees under the consultant's supervision. The sessions have given amputees a chance to ventilate their feelings of alienation, powerlessness, and boredom, and have been effective in halting destructive behavior and increasing self-esteem.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000674:Amputees; D001318:Authoritarianism; D001887:Boredom; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009326:Naval Medicine; D009726:Nurses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009985:Orthopedics; D011570:Psychiatry; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012046:Rehabilitation; D012918:Social Alienation