Reunions of Former Inpatients on a Psychiatric Unit

In this study, despite any negative results, the authors found that patient reunions can be structured in an appropriate way. The overall impact on both inpatients and returning former inpatients seemed to be helpful and to promote personal growth. The staff membems felt very positive about the reunions, and the reunions thus seemed to minimize staff burnout in an otherwise very stressful job. The possibility of patients' causing harm to each others' treatment programs exists, but it can be minimized to an extent by screening high-risk invitations and by close staff supervision of the reunion.

We conclude that if the theoretical and logistical issues of holding reunions of former inpatients are dealt with in advance, the constructive potentialities outweigh the destructive elements. We feel that our experience is neither unique nor idiosyncratic and that much themapeutic benefit can result from such reunions. Further research will be needed to assess the overall impact of patient reunions and to evaluate the transferability of our findings to other settings.