BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE UNIT - NEW FACILITY

A new type of short-term, psychiatric, inpatient facility is described that utilizes predominantly behavioral techniques and is designed to treat patients manifesting symptoms of severe anxiety, phobias, chronic pain syndromes, and psychosomatic disorders. Salient aspects of its organization and conduct are discussed. This Behavioral Medicine Unit offers a unique program of therapy to a patient population that presently has no appropriate health care facility. It is designed, moreover, to be self-evaluative and, within its own treatment schemes, optimizes conditions for long-term effectiveness. Behavioral medicine as here defined is a systematic approach to illness involving a sequence of assessment and treatment directed towards a specific patient population and represents a clinical application of a holistic-systems approach to medicine. © 1979.