This qualitative study assessed clients' participation in organizational decision making in a public long-term psychiatric hospital. Numerous examples were found in which clients meaningfully participated in the decision-making process and achieved favorable policy changes. Three means of involving clients were found to be especially useful: (1)…

Study reviews documents and conducts focus groups with clients and staff of a public psychiatric hospital to identify barriers to empowerment and the conditions that must be present for client empowerment to occur through treatment planning. For empowerment to occur, clients need psychiatric stability and decision-making skills. (Contains 40…

Forensic patients are occupying an increasingly large number of beds in state psychiatric hospitals. The presence of these mentally ill offenders has raised concerns about the risk they present to nonforensic patients. This study compared the rate of assaults and factors associated with assaultive behavior among 308 nonforensic patients and two…