RELATIONSHIP OF WORK THERAPY TO PSYCHIATRIC LENGTH OF STAY AND READMISSION

Hypothesized that participants in an in-hospital work-therapy program require a shorter period of intensive and total psychiatric treatment and fewer readmissions to all psychiatric facilities than do nonparticipants. Patients were randomly assigned to the participant (N = 110) and nonparticipant (N = 149) groups at admission. Contrary to the hypotheses, the results indicate that participants had significantly longer stays in both intensive treatment and total hospitalization than did nonparticipants. Although there was no difference between the groups with respect to readmission to all psychiatric facilities, participants had significantly more readmissions to the original institution. It is suggested that work-therapy programs be established in the community in order to avoid contributing to the hospital dependency of participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.