Development and results of social psychiatry in the U.S.S.R.

Abstract

All the most urgent problems of social and work resettlement of the psychiatrically disabled, as well as of prevention of disability and social readaptation, are emphasized in Soviet legislation as problems of national importance that have to be solved not only by the institutions of Health Security or of Social Assistance, but also by local executive committees, directors of factories, building undertakings, etc., in cooperation with the trades unions. These public organizations have to systematically study the reasons for morbidity and for disablement and help create the conditions for work resettlement in various institutions and places of work. Our experience shows clearly that success depends not only on legislation or on the organization of services for social readaptation, but also on the level of knowledge concerning clinical pathophysiology, and of psychological regularities in the development of remissions and in compensation for defect states. The gradual accumulation of knowledge in these fields increases the optimism and the efficiency of Soviet psychiatrists.