THE QUALITY-OF-LIFE OF CHRONIC INPATIENTS OF A TRADITIONAL PSYCHIATRIC-HOSPITAL IN THE LATE 1900S

In the period prior to a major attempt to deinstitutionalize services for a legion, the quality of life of most residents of a traditional-t ype psychiatric hospital was studied. Quality of life was measured by staff-rated observable behavior [the REHAB measure of Baker Br Hall (1 984)] and in terms of the residents' own perceptions of how contented they were with various aspects of life [the Quality of Life scale of T est & Stein (1978)]. Many of the residents had substantial behavior al deficits, but on average, they tended to profess to be neither partic ularly happy nor unhappy. Associations between the two measurement dom ains, and between them and other variables such as age and diagnostic status, were modest. The implications of the findings for the theory a nd practice of deinstitutionalization are discussed.