Prediction of community stay and employment for released psychiatric patients.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of released psychiatric patients and their relatives that are associated with success in remaining in the community and obtaining employment. 2 IS male patients were studied at the time of release and followed for 1 yr. 11 and 13 variables were significantly (p < .05) correlated with community stay and employment, respectively. The predictor intercorrelation matrix was factored, and patients were scored on the resulting 6 Varimax factors. A series of regression analyses was run using these factor scores as independent variables. Distress/Alienation and Drinking/Antisocial Behavior were the most important predictors of length of community stay; Chronicity/Severity of Disorder and Simple-Mindedness were the most important predictors of employment.

The relationship between patient demographic characteristics and psychiatric rehabilitation outcome

“…Lewinsohn (1967) found a nonsignificant trend for married expatients to remain in the community to a greater extent than unmarried expatients. In contrast, other researchers have found marital status to be unrelated to recidivism (Forsyth & Fairweather, 1961;Lorei, 1967;Wessler & Iven, 1970).…”

“…In contrast, diagnosis has been found to be ineffective at differentiating those who return to the hospital from those who remain in the community (Freeman & Simmons, 1963;Lorei, 1967;Wessler & Iven, 1970). It is only when measures of chronicity (typically defined by length of hospitalization) are included in the diagnosis that a relationship is found (Fairweather, 1964;Freeman & Simmons, 1963).…”

“…The findings with respect to both education level and occupational level have also been quite consistent. Investigations of education level have concluded that level of education and recidivism are unrelated (Gregory & Downie, 1968;Lewinsohn, 1967;Lorei, 1967). Concerning occupational level, while Gregory and Downie (1968) found that significantly more unskilled workers fail to ever be released from the hospital, there was no relationship between recidivism and occupational level for those who were released.…”

“…Forsyth and Fairweather (1961) report in a factor analytic study that a 10-year work history prior to hospitalization fails to load on remaining in the community. Investigations of race and recidivism have likewise found no relationship between these two variables (Forsyth & Fairweather, 1961;Lorei, 1967).…”

“…Lorei (1967) found that not being hospitalized in the 2 years prior to the last hospitalization differentiated between recidivists and nonreci divists. Wessler and Iven (1970) also report that readmissions accounted for 58% of their total admissions during a 3-year period, an amount they considered to be a significant disproportion.…”