The relationship between patients' educational level and therapeutic process in an acute patient therapeutic community.
Traditional custodial care in mental hospitals has given way to brief hospitalizations and a variety of active inpatient treatment milieus, eg, therapeutic communities. But can only well-educated patients utilize this kind of complex, even demanding form of psychosocial care? A total of 1,538 patients and their first admissions from 1977 to 1993 at a closed therapeutic community ward at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu (Finland) were assessed to analyze the association of the patient's educational level with some treatment and outcome characteristics. Educational levels were non-professional education (46% of all patients), lower professional (39%) and higher professional education (15%). There were no statistically significant differences in the treatment and outcome variables of patients in any educational level. The result indicates the achievement of one treatment goal on the therapeutic community model, ie, patient equality in spite of different educational status. This result may be especially important for less educated persons.
Isohanni
I
I
Polytechnic Institute of Oulu, Finland.
Nieminen
P
P
Isohanni
M
M