The pioneer study of A. B. Hollingshead
and F. C. Redlich, recorded in their book, Social
Class and Mental Illness, indicates that social
class is related to a number of factors pertaining
to mental illness. Subsequent studies prompted
by this work have examined some of these factors.
All of these investigations were carried out
in the United States in various mental health
settings.
It became our purpose to examine the
relevance of these factors in a Canadian mental
hospital setting. Three hypotheses were
postulated. First, that social class would be
related to the type of treatment received in
the hospital. Second, that the duration of
stay in the hospital would be related to social
class. And, third, that the patient's level
of improvement upon discharge from the hospital
would be related to social class. Routinely
collected data from Riverview Provincial Mental
Hospital were used to test these hypotheses.
No statistically significant relationships
were found between social class and of the
three dependent variables. However, it was noted that the higher social class levels of psychotics, as measured by the educational
index, seemed to receive more electro-convulsive
therapy and group therapy than was the case with
any other diagnostic category. Possibly this
trend could be persued in subsequent studies.
Also, duration of stay was not considered to be an important variable because of the relatively
short stay of the majority of all persons admitted
to the hospital. It was concluded that the
definition of treatment was too narrow. Electroconvulsive
therapy and group therapy were the
most amenable to statistical examination.
However, it is widely recognized that milieu
therapy is a major form of treatment in Riverview
Hospital and therefore, should be included in
any consideration of treatment in subsequent
studies. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / [Other authors, Allan Lloyd Failing
Mary Louise Ferguson
Pamela Dawn Gaudette
Roberta Miriam Jauck
Gordon Edward McLeod] / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41719 |
| Date | January 1968 |
| Creators | Bonner, Kenneth Ralph |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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