SOCIAL ACTIVITIES IN ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH SEVERE MENTAL-ILLNESS - LESSONS FROM A MENTAL-HOSPITAL IN SWEDEN

Mental hospitals offer their patients many different kinds of social a ctivities/facilities. One-hundred-and-twenty-seven patients in the lon g-term care unit at a mental hospital were included in the study. They were divided into three subgroups on the basis of diagnosis: dementia disorder (n = 65), chronic psychotic disorder (n = 38), and chronic n on-psychotic disorder (n = 24). An inventory was made of all possible activities/facilities offered to the patients by the mental hospital, with the objective of ascertaining whether participation in social act ivities/facilities discriminated between the three diagnostic groups. Sixteen activities/facilities were obtained from an inventory by nurse s. Stepwise discriminant analysis identified length of stay in hospita l, age and the social activities:facilities that separated the three d iagnostic groups. The discriminant function analysis showed that parti cipation in social activities, together with length of stay and age, d iscriminated very well between the demented and the chronic psychotic groups. The discriminant analysis also indicated that patients with ch ronic psychotic disorder were distinguishable by their frequent partic ipation in social activities, long stay in hospital, and low age. The results obtained can be used when the social activities!facilities in a community care setting are being planned for the various diagnostic groups.