Selection of Admissions to a Therapeutic Community Using a Group Setting: Association with Degree and Type of Psychological Distress

Bridget Dolan, Adrian Morton and James Wilson
Additional contact information
Bridget Dolan: Henderson Hospital, 2 Homeland Drive, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5LT, UK, Section of Forensic Psychiatry, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London SW17 ORE, UK
Adrian Morton: Henderson Hospital, 2 Homeland Drive, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5LT, UK
James Wilson: Henderson Hospital, 2 Homeland Drive, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5LT, UK

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1990, vol. 36, issue 4, 265-271

Abstract: Henderson Hospital is a therapeutic community offering treatment for personality disordered young adults. The community operates a unique system of selection, whereby a group of residents and staff jointly decide upon offering admission to new referrals. This study is a preliminary investigation examining, in part, the basis upon which the selection group makes its decision. A measure of symptomatic psychological distress (SCL-90) was completed by 156 selection candidates. Comparison of those candidates selected with those who were rejected showed no difference between groups in number of symptoms reported nor the degree of distress attributable to those symptoms. However, analysis of symptom sub-scale scores revealed that those subjects not selected scored significantly higher on measures of somatisation, obsessive — compulsive features and phobic anxiety. It could be argued that these three symptoms are indicative of a tendency to deny or avoid feeling emotional distress. We propose that at one level, the selection group may operate by identifying those candidates who are more able to verbalise their distress, i.e. those presumed most likely to benefit from the Therapeutic Community's psychotherapeutic approach.

Date: 1990
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002076409003600404 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:36:y:1990:i:4:p:265-271

DOI: 10.1177/002076409003600404

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().