The staff of a large psychiatric hospital were investigated concerning their attitude toward mental patients. This was done by means of a stochastic transversal survey. A random sample (15%), stratified according to professional activity, was reached by one interviewer using a French translation and adaptation of the “Composite Mental Illness and Social Attitudes Scales.” With analyses of variance and analyses of correlation significant factors influencing attitudes were identified: age, education, type of work, marital and social status. For the whole population the humanitarian index was found predominant over the custodial index.
References
1.
BordeleauJ. M., PelletierP., PanaccioL. et TetreaultL.: Authoritarian-humanitarian index in a large mental hospital.Dis. Nerv. Syst. (sous presse).
2.
CarstairsG. M. et HeronA.: The social environment of mental hospital patients: A measure of staff attitudes, pp. 218–230, in GreenblattM., LevinsonD. J. et WilliamsR. ed.,: The Patient and the Mental Hospital.Glencoe, Ill., The Free Press, 1957.
