One of the major problems in measuring community mental health status is the lack of consensus among mental health workers in psychiatry, psychology, sociology, and epidemiology as to what constitutes mental illness. Additionally, changing social mores preclude a definition of mental illness in behavioral terms. An operational definition of mental…

The role played by stress in the prognosis of schizophrenia is not entirely clear. It has been suggested that high premorbid stress levels before first-time psychiatric admission for schizophrenia will be related to better outcome. Subjects, first-time psychiatric admissions classified as schizophrenic by either Schneider's First Rank Symptoms,…

This research questions the frequent observation that elderly persons in long-term care institutions are isolated from their families, and that institutionalization is the final step in the breakdown of family relations. Data consisted of open-ended interviews with institutionalized elderly parents and with the child most involved with the parent…

A five-month ethnographic study of conversations in a Philadelphia nursing home revealed some of the rules governing situationally appropriate conversational behavior. The social communicational perspective of the study differed from both psychological and discourse analysis approaches. Analysis of the data indicated that sustained…

This IRCD Bulletin issue contains two brief papers. One, on contingency management, describes the application of this aspect of operant conditioning theory to the manipulation of behavior through reinforcement methods. Examples of the technique of managing high and low probability behaviors are offered as it is used with preschool children,…

The purpose of this study was to see if a change in environment affected the rate of sensorimotor development in infants. First a control group of institutionally-reared infants aged 1 to 6 months was observed to determine average age of visually directed reaching, visual exploration, visual accommodation, and the blink response. Then the…

A survey was made of 1730 psychiatric patients who had been discharged into the community. Of the 1730, more were females (69%), but disorders among men were more severe. Three groups of cases were identified: the most severe, composed of persons poorly established in the community, most frequently single unskilled males and often diagnosed…

This paper examines the major conflicts and stresses which surround the coming of age in rural Ireland today and which commonly contribute to mental breakdown. The study is based on ten months of participant observation in an Irish-speaking village of Southwest Kerry, combined with weekly visits to the county mental hospital. The author uses a…

Provided is a computer summary of the ratings and prescriptive suggestions on the Adaptive Behavior Checklist (ABCL) for a 5-year-old severely retarded, physically handicapped institutionalized boy. The ABCL is explained to measure basic (general motor and sensory development), primary (conceptual and language development), and secondary (social…

This study was designed to assess whether randomly selected male and female parolees could do as well without formal parole supervision as under conventional parole supervision. In addition, the kind and amount of help sought out and received within the community by the respective experimental and control group subjects was examined. The…

"Learning 100" was used to assist chronic institutionalized mental patients in acquiring or recovering the skills needed for maintaining social interactions on the ward, listening to and comprehending radio and television broadcasts, reading newspapers--including classified advertisements, writing letters on personal business, and…

An attempt was made to develop programs to improve eating behaviors, with a secondary emphasis on dressing and toileting skills, in profoundly and severely mentally retarded subjects. The purpose was to modify and improve the eating behaviors of institutionalized individuals and to systematically measure changes in these behaviors. The subjects…

The document presents an analysis of recent literature on the deinstitutionalization of emotionally disturbed persons. Discussed are opposing views with emphasis on the idea of reliance on community resources and the present trend toward the provision of a continuum of treatment alternatives. Brief sections cover issues related to such problems as…

The long term effect of a behavior modification toilet training program developed by N. Azrin and R. Fox was investigated for eight severely and profoundly institutionalized retarded persons (7-50 years old). (CL)

Forty-nine clients who had been deinstitutionalized into community settings were matched with clients who remained in the institution. In a subsequent assessment, community clients surpassed institutional clients in social and cognitive skills (including reading/writing, quantitative, community orientation, leisure time, vocational, and social…