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This paper evaluates and describes methods for making psychiatric distinctions. It is by means of psychiatric distinctions that individuals are labeled mentally ill or mentally well. Within the mentally ill category, patients are differentially placed according to the severity and type of their mental illness. The placement of individuals into psychiatric categories is an essential prerequisite not only to the clinical treatment of patients but also to any research where the objective is to determine empirical regularities associated with mental illness. Until the patient is categorized, the practitioner has no logical guide for how to perform treatment or even whether he should treat the patient—i.e, the patient may not be a patient. Similarly, unless the psychiatric researcher has categorized his subjects according to some notion of mental illness he has no way of making comparisons or of assessing change, the two essential processes in research. Thus, the logical first step for arty discovery of new knowledge in the field of mental illness is to appraise the reliability and validity of methods for making psychiatric distinctions. No research findings can be more reliable or valid than the psychiatric distinctions used in carrying oat the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do people see a doctor? At one extreme, blatant pathology and extreme pain will, with few exceptions, bring one to a doctor in those societies where doctors are available (with the possible exception of mental illness). At the other extreme, a small portion of the visits are accounted for by a preventive health orientation, where no symptoms have been perceived. But, as Zola points out (1966, 1968), "we find that the vast bulk [of a physician's load] is concerned with quite minor disorders." There is, on the other hand, he notes, a great body of data which show that there is much illness, defined as such both clinically and subjectively, which is not brought to the attention of the physician. What Zola is saying, then, is that the potential for entry into patienthood is extraordinarily widespread and continuous. One can be ill, clinically speaking, without going to the doctor; or one can go to the doctor, either without any particular change in one's clinical condition or even without any particular justification from the point of view of the physician. If variations among individuals, social subgroups, or societies in visiting rates cannot be explained, within limits, by variations in clinically-determinable morbidity, what are the factors that can predict such variations? It is the purpose of this paper to present a model which, though derived from the case of Israel, should be applicable to other societies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on different approaches to emotional management of children with chronic illness in the U.S. Number of children surveyed by the National Health Survey who had restricted days of activity; Cooperation with all the medical personnel in order to correct the specific defect and control the symptoms of the particular illness; Steps taken in preventing the disease process and the treatment regimen.

By actively participating in family interviews, pediatric resident trainees sharpen their skills, discover the importance of intra- family dynamics, observe the interaction of biologic and psycho-social factors in illnesses and develop an awareness of their own potentialities and weaknesses for dealing with clinical problems referable to the behavioral and emotional aspects of pediatrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among relatives of formerly hospitalized patients, attitudes toward the etiology of mental illness, the mental hospital, the normaley of former patients, and the responsibility of patients for their condition were assessed by means of short, structured scales. These attitudes were found to be associated with education, age, and verbal ability. There was no relationship, however, between these attitudes and social class, independent of education. The analysis suggests that "enlightened" attitudes toward mental illness can be more parsimoniously accounted for on the basis of differential verbal skills than on the basis of differences in "style of life." Attitudes of relatives were also found to be associated with the post hospital behavior of the patients. Difficulty may be anticipated in implementing procedures to modify the attitudes of patients' family members, for their attitudes appear to be "rooted" in a set of diverse elements that includes socialization as well as situational variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several research on the role of classroom interactions and teachers influence in combating mental illness of children in the U.S. The report of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health contained recommendations in combating mental illness which include balanced portfolio of mental health services and research, suggestion for increasing government spending for all levels of mental health services, encourage towards health and helping professions. Ralph Rabinovitch, director of Hawthorne Center, indicated that schools must offer psychological guide through organize and challenging programs of academic studies and routines for emotionally handicapped children.

The rapid growth of the community mental health movement has evoked both praise and scorn. A major aim of many community mental health specialists is the reduction or elimination of mental illness through primary prevention. Crucial for primary prevention is the notion that mental illness is etiologically or sequentially associated with social conditions such as poverty and racism. An examination of the empirical evidence largely fails to support this notion. Instead, belief in the efficacy of primary prevention rests on ideological grounds. Some of the logical implications of these ideologies are examined and their significance for the future of community mental health programs are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies that bear on the societal reaction explanation of mental illness are critically evaluated. The first study focuses on the relationship between the decision to institute commitment proceedings and the degree of psychiatric disturbance, the second on the effect of power on the decision-making process in a psychiatric hearing, and the third on the severity of the psychiatric disorder of patients who have been committed. It is shown that, contrary to the interpretations of the investigators, the data in these studies do not clearly support the societal reaction perspective and are, in fact, open to interpretations that run counter to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship for communities between extent of common culture and hospitalized mental disorders. Common culture is measured by indices of (1) political consensus, (2) homogeneity of income, and (3) racial and ethnic similarity. Homogeneous communities tend to have a higher incidence of hospitalized mental disorders than heterogeneous communities. Data on community psychopathology, measured independently of mental hospital statistics, suggest that propensity to hospitalize may account for the observed differences in hospital admission rates between communities. Data on the circumstances surrounding admissions further suggest that hospitalized mental illness is higher in culturally homogeneous communities because of greater consensus as to what constitutes normal and abnormal behavior rather than because of rejection of the mentally ill. The influence of community structure on institutionalization of the mentally ill appears to operate chiefly for the less debilitating forms of mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a study of 1,045 state mental hospital patients released on leave of absence during the calendar year of 1956 to the Oakland California Bureau of Social Work, a large amount of evaluative information was collected on post-hospital adjustment. Data from case records, administrative files, and hospital records were reviewed. They clearly demonstrated that most ex-patients did not possess a sufficient number of social resources to allow them to adapt to the world outside the state hospital. On the basis of these findings, one can easily understand why seven out of ten of these patients returned to the hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between alienation and mental health is of interest to workers in mental health professions for another reason. This is the question of whether social values are affected by mental illness. It has often been assumed that they are, but there is a dearth of evidence on this question. It cannot be taken for granted that because a man enters a mental hospital, he has rejected the values of the dominant culture. On the basis of research on long stay patients, it appears more likely that large mental hospitals produce more alienation than they treat. Some patients on chronic wards have not visited a community in years. Many do not read a newspaper or receive mail. In such cases discussions of alienated mental patients should be centered on the disculturating effects of large isolated mental hospitals rather than the relationship between alienation and psychopathology. The task at hand is to investigate the degree of alienation of patients recently admitted to a large mental hospital.