Since 1963, the lives of thousands of psychiatric patients in the United States
have been drastically and dramatically changed by a national policy change
to community-based mental health care. Faults in the implementation of
that policy have often placed the burden of care for these patients in the
hands of their families. Several years ago, a self-help group composed of par
ents of chronically mentally ill adults founded two small residential facilities
for their patient-children. One facility was intended to be an innovative
attempt to provide care for this population but quickly became a facility like
those established by professionals. The other facility unintentionally pre
served the model of the first. This study looks at the development of the par
ents' self-help group, the two facilities, and the conflicts that developed
because of these attempts to provide formal services to the mentally ill.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bassuk, Ellen L., and Samuel Gerson. (1978). Deinstitutionalization and Mental Health Services. Scientific American,238(2), 46-53.
2.
Borman, Leonard D. (1976, September-October). Self-Help and the Professional . Social Policy, 46-47.
3.
Chapin, F. Stuart. (1951). The Growth of Bureaucracy: An Hypothesis. American Sociological Review, 16, 835-836.
4.
Chapin, F. Stuart, and John E. Tsouderous. (1955). Formalization Observed in Ten Voluntary Associations: Concepts, Morphology, Process. Social Forces, 33, 306-309.
5.
Chapin, F. Stuart, and John E. Tsouderous. (1956). The Formalization Process in Voluntary Associations. Social Forces, 34, 342-344.
6.
Doll, William. (1976). Family Coping with the Mentally Ill: An Unanticipated Problem of Deinstitutionalization. Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 27(3), 183-185.
7.
Gregory, Kathleen L. (1983). Native-View Paradigms: Multiple Cultures and Culture Conflicts in Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly , 28, 359-376.
8.
Hatfield, Agnes B. (1978). The Psychological Costs of Schizophrenia to the Family. Social Work, 23(5), 355-359.
9.
Hatfield, Agnes B. (1979a). The Family and the Mentally Ill. In R. T. Williams and H. M. Shetler (eds.), Proceedings of Conference on Advocacy for Persons with Chronic Mental Illness (pp. 18-43). Madison: University of Wisconsin Extension.
10.
Hatfield, Agnes B. (1979b). The Family as Partner in the Treatment of Mental Illness. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 30(5), 338-340.
11.
Hatfield, Agnes B. (1979c). Help-Seeking Behavior in Families of the Mentally Ill. American Journal of Community Psychology, 7(5), 563-569.
12.
Hatfield, Agnes B. (1981). Self-Help Groups for Families of the Mentally Ill. Social Work, 26(5), 408-413.
13.
Kalifon, S. Zev (1986). Self-Help Groups for Families of the Mentally Ill: Growth, Conflict and Change (Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, 1986). Dissertation Abstracts International , 47, 3092A.
14.
Katz, Alfred H. (1961). Parents of the Handicapped. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
15.
Katz, Alfred H. (1981). Self-Help and Mutual Aid: An Emerging Social Movement . Annual Review of Sociology, 7, 129-155.
16.
Kreisman, Dolores E., and Virginia D. Joy. (1974). Family Response to the Mental Illness of a Relative: A Review of the Literature. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 3(4), 34-57.
17.
Lenrow, Peter B., and Rosemary W Burch . (1981). Mutual Aid and Professional Services: Opposing or Complementary? In B. H. Gottlieb (ed.), Social Networks and Social Support (pp. 233-257). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
18.
Lieberman, Morton A., and Leonard D. Borman. (1979). Self-Help Groups for Coping with Crisis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass .
19.
Minkoff, Kenneth. (1978). A Map of Chronic Mental Patients. In J. A. Talbott (ed.), The Chronic Mental Patient (pp. 11-32). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
20.
Newman, Kathleen. (1980). Incipient Bureaucracy: The Development of Hierarchies in Egalitarian Organizations. In G. M. Brittan and R. Cohen (eds.), Hierarchy and Society (pp. 45-59). Philadelphia: ISHI.
21.
Riger, Stephanie. (1983). Vehicles for Empowerment: The Case of Feminist Movement Organizations. Prevention in Human Services, 3(2-3), 99-117.
22.
Spradley, James P. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
23.
Thompson, Edward H., and William Doll. (1982). The Burdens of Families Coping with the Mentally Ill: An Invisible Crisis. Family Relations, 31, 379-388.
24.
Tsouderous, John E. (1955). Organizational Change in Terms of a Series of Selected Variables. American Sociological Review, 20, 206-210.
25.
Vine, Phillis. (1982). Families in Pain. New York : Pantheon.
26.
Wasow, Mona. (1982). Coping with Schizophrenia. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
27.
Wemer, Oswald, G. Mark Schoepfle, and Associates. (1979). Handbook of Ethnoscience : Ethnographies and Encyclopaedias. Evanston, IL: Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University.
