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Measuring Social Disabilities in Mental Health

  • Chapter
Mental Health Outcome Measures

Abstract

Mental disorders are in general strongly associated with social dysfunction, particularly in schizophrenia and the major affective disorders. For a long time social dysfunctioning was considered an epiphenomenon and just a part of the disease process. Criteria for the diagnosis of a mental disorder were and still are often derived from the domains of work and social relationship. There are at least two related reasons why social functioning deserves a closer look:

  1. 1.

    There is a increasing trend to treat patients in the community instead of in the hospital: the changing orientation on community care needs careful evaluation with respect to its consequences. To what extent is survival in the community possible and what is the quality of life like there? Are community programs better than hospital treatment, and for whom? Therefore, separate measurement is justified for evaluation of outcome and costs and benefits.

  2. 2.

    There is growing evidence that the courses of symptomatology and social dysfunctioning may vary relatively independently: social disablement of a patient may be characterized much more by social disabilities than by persistent psychi-atric symptoms; the former may call for another kind of action than usually available. For example, psychosocial rehabihtation focuses on cognitive and social abilities of the patient which are crucial for a more or less independent life. Therefore, seperate measurement is justified for the sake of the right choice of treatment.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Psychiatry, University Hospital Groningen, Oostersingel 59, PO Box 30.001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Durk Wiersma

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  1. Durk Wiersma
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychiatry, PRiSM, SE5 8AF, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, UK

    Graham Thornicroft

  2. Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona, Ospedale Policlinico, I-37134, Verona, Italy

    Michele Tansella

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Wiersma, D. (1996). Measuring Social Disabilities in Mental Health. In: Thornicroft, G., Tansella, M. (eds) Mental Health Outcome Measures. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80202-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-80202-7_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-80204-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-80202-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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