A comparative analysis of the young adult chronic patient in New York State's community support system

Using data from a 1981 survey of 844 clients in seven selected programs of New York State's community support system, the authors assess the relationship of client age to a wide range of individual characteristics. They are particularly concerned with whether the young adult chronic patients in their study (those aged 18 to 34) share the same negative characteristics increasingly applied to young chronic patients in the literature, and whether these characteristics also apply to older patients. Their results indicate that while the 18- to 34-year-old patients in their study did exhibit many of the problematic characteristics associated with young chronic patients, these characteristics applied to a relatively small minority of the young patients as well as to many of the older patients. In addition, the results highlight several significant strengths of young patients that have received little attention. The authors conclude by discussing the important clinical and programmatic implications of their findings.