Patients' and staff's perceptions of therapy and milieu in a short-term private psychiatric hospital

Abstract

In treating psychiatric patients, the perceptions of both patients and staff at psychiatric hospitals are important to patient recovery. Although patient feedback regarding treatment has largely been ignored, current interest in opinions and rights of mental patients as consumers brings this issue into focus (Gonzalez, 1976). Most studies which do compare patients and staff perceptions of psychiatric hospitalization and treatment have been conducted in large, publicly financed hospitals, not in small private hospitals (Goldstein et al., 1972; Kish, 1971; Mayer and Rosenblatt, 1974). Private hospitals are becoming increasingly more important as state hospitals continue to close (NIMH, 1974).