Initial Treatment Assignment as a Function of Patient Self-Assessment And/Or Family Assessment of Patient

Abstract

A standardized interview administered at intake to a cohort of 611 applicants to a community mental health center and to 433 of their family members showed that patients who received hospitalization as their initial assignment were assessed as significantly more ill by their families than those who received other initial outpatient assignments. Patients who were hospitalized did not see themselves as being more ill, however. Patients assigned to Medicine Clinic saw themselves as significantly less psychologically ill.