A Study of the Dimensions of Coping Among the Chronically Mentally Disabled

Abstract

<p>Since the advent of deinstitutionalization in Canada in the late 1960's, there has been both a practical and theoretical need for a more comprehensive understanding of the structure of community life and the determinants of coping experience among the chronically mentally disabled (CMD) .</p> <p>In general, the provision of formal and informal aftercare services designed to reintegrate ex-psychiatric patients into society have met with limited success. The problems of coping in the community (i.e. achieving a 'fit' between needs of the self and demands of the setting) are manifestly very complex and therefore related research requires a multidimensional framework that can include the social, physical and medical experiences of the CMD.</p> <p>The rationale behind this project involves examining the effects on post-hospital outcomes of four categories of environmental variables (living, situation and housing experience, material well-being, social networks and psychiatric profile and service utilization) using a behavioural model of coping developed by Dear et. al (1980). The relative strength of the behavioural dimensions of coping model will then be assessed by examining other factors potentially affecting coping ability that extend beyond the individual per se.</p> <p>Given that there is an increasing emphasis on localized service delivery, social geographic studies into the problems surrounding coping are both timely and useful in terms of developing research methods that help explain the etiology of social problems; specifically those related to improving community care for the CHD. As a final note, results will be evaluated in terms of the implications for current mental health care policies in Hamilton.</p>