Goals of therapy on psychiatric inpatient units

Abstract

This paper studies goal settings in in-patient psychiatric units from the organizational behavior perspective. The Goal Profile is a questionnaire for assessing each ward's atmosphere on goals, the amount of agreement on goals between patients, staff, and between the two groups. Ten wards were studied. There is no significant correlation between patient goals and staff goals on any ward studied. The amount of general agreement of goals differs from ward to ward. On retest, staff goals on each unit remained more constant than patient goals. Goal agreement or disagreement is not related to general satisfaction with the ward. The implications of a social unit composed of two demarcated groups working for different goals are discussed.