Psychometric evaluation of the Ward Atmosphere Scale in a Russian psychiatric hospital

Abstract

The revised WAS version appeared applicable within this Russian psychiatric hospital context. Several of the items that were dropped appeared inapplicable because of differences between Russian and Western culture and psychiatry.

Effect of Therapeutic Atmosphere in a Psychiatry Clinic on Social Functionality of in-Patients

“…The present study has also revealed that socio-demographic characteristics and disease data of the patients were significantly different between SFS scores in three measurements and mean SFS scores of men were higher than women (Table 2). This finding is parallel with the literature [26,30,31]. Majority of the female participants were housewives.…”

“…Besides this, mean SFS scores significantly differed based on patients' medical diagnosis in three repeated measurements and differences resulted from the third, which showed also that whatever the diagnosis was, the level of functionality of the patients after discharge was higher than with disease onset and during clinic admission. Relevant studies have shown that a well-structured ward atmosphere increases social functionality of patients [11,12,17,25,26]. In this respect, it seems that the relevant ward's atmosphere-despite having requirement to be improved -contributed to the development in patients' social functionality.…”

“…The highest mean score of SFS was detected in the third measurement ( Table 1). There are some changes in the patients who have been in a well-structured therapeutic atmosphere such as alleviation in disease symptoms, increase in insight, becoming stronger for coping, improvement in problem solving and communication skills, development in self-confidence, provision of realistic personal goals, decrement in the factors impairing social adaptation and causing ability loss [17,21,[26][27][28][29]. The lowest score of social functionality on the first day of admission may result from not having been in the therapeutic atmosphere yet and increase of the second measurement of social functionality may be explained by having been in the therapeutic atmosphere for at least 10 days and having participated in all activities.…”

Comparing Social Climate Perceptions of Staff and Juveniles with Sexual Behavior Problems

“…Moreover, previous research has confirmed both the content [45] and criterion validity [46] of the WAS. Additionally, it has been implemented in several cross-cultural contexts [24,29,31,47].…”

“…Additionally, Jörgensen, Römma, and Rundmo (2009) [23] utilized the Ward Atmosphere Scale and discovered a correlation between the Ward Atmosphere Scale and juvenile satisfaction, while acknowledging more research was necessary. Social climate has been a concept researched in the previous decades [25, [29][30][31], and focused on the perspective within a hospital inpatient unit as opposed to correctional centers.…”