Attitudes of relatives to patients in mental hospitals.

In recent years the policy ofmany mental hospitals in the United Kingdom has been to promote the rehabilitation and discharge of patients with chronic mental disorders. The increasing number of cases with residual symptoms living either at their homes or at institutions in closer proximity to the local population than traditional mental hospitals demands much tolerance and sympathy from relatives, friends, neighbours, and members of the general public. The effect of the social milieu on the progress of discharged patients has been examined in studies by Brown, Carstairs, and Topping (1958) and by Freeman and Simmons (1958a,b). There is evidence from these investigations that the nature and constitution of the social group which receives the patient on discharge from hospital may exert a substantial influence upon the future course of the illness. This paper is concerned mainly with the attitudes of relatives to a family member in a mental hospital and especially with those attitudes which may influence family behaviour if and when the time comes for the patient to leave hospital.