FAMILY CARE, A COMMUNITY RESOURCE IN THE REHABILITATION OF MENTAL PATIENTS

A study is reported of 299 cases placed in family care by the Worcester State Hospital during the 5-year period from 1934 to 1938. This period was selected as it represented the time during which special emphasis was being placed on the use of family care for convalescent cases. Of these cases 23.4% were placed in family care because their family refused to accept them at home; 46.7% had family problems that made it seem advisable to introduce family care as an intermediate step before considering their return to their own homes; 24.2% had no other place to go; and 9.9% were placed in family care for other reasons. The study indicates that:

1. The majority of patients sent into family care (65%) had been hospitalized less than two years prior to placement as contrasted with Copp's group in which 65% had been hospitalized more than two years (5). Convalescent rather than chronic cases are boarded out by us.

2. Forty-two per cent of the patients placed were discharged or paroled and an additional 22% remained in the community in family care.

3. Discharge and visit rates were higher and fewer patients returned to the hospital or remained in family care when patients were placed before the end of the first year of hospital residence.

4. The factors outside the patient which seem to be important in effecting a favorable result in addition to the minimum standards of a comfortable boarding home are: (a) the interest of the caretaker in patient's problems, (b) the opportunity for work and recreation.

5. Family care appears to be a valuable community resource for the rehabilitation of mental patients who do not have a suitable home of their own. This practice deserves more widespread use.