[Opinions of psychiatric patients and treatment goals]

The aim of the study was to examine the opinions of psychiatric patients regarding the aims of their care and to compare these to the aims recorded by the nursing staff on the treatment plan forms. Attention was also paid to the reasons quoted by the patients for the given helping methods and their opinions on factors which promote or hamper treatment. The basic group consisted of patients who had been treated at the Department of Psychiatry in the University Hospital District of Northern Ostrobothnia for at least two weeks. The group was divided into two parts: 1) patients treated in a close ward and 2) those in an open ward. Thirty-one patients of each kind were selected by random sampling and interviewed using five open questions which concerned the aims of the treatment, their grounds for participating in the treatment concerned and factors promoting or hampering treatment. The notes on the aims of the treatment made by the nursing staff were gathered from the treatment plan forms for the patients in question. The data were analyzed by content analysis. The primary finding was that there are still discrepancies between the aims recorded in the course of treatment and patient's own opinions. The results indicate that the patients regarded social interaction as the primary reason for seeking treatment, followed by therapeutic interaction and normative factors in the ward. Factors considered to promote helping were therapeutic interaction, medical treatment, self realization and social interaction, whereas the detrimental factors were related to the patients themselves, their individual needs, the environment, the therapeutic community or the medication provided.