A need for social support. The chronically mentally ill institutionalized elderly

Now that nursing homes are playing a major role in community care of psychiatric patients, they must be evaluated for the extent to which they offer and provide opportunities for social reintegration. Reality orientation and therapeutic milieu are the interventions used most often with elderly institutionalized chronically mentally ill patients. Attention that the elderly chronically mentally ill patients receive in reality orientation or in therapeutic milieu is probably more beneficial than the treatment itself.