Evaluation of different forms of community meeting in a psychiatric unit in Hong Kong.

In an in-patient psychiatric unit attached to a teaching general hospital in Hong Kong, community meetings went through doctor-directed and nurse-directed forms to develop into a non-directive one. The therapeutic value of these different forms was tested by retrospective and prospective studies. In the retrospective study the rates of ward incidents and discharge rates of in-patients before and during the three stages were compared. In the prospective study an ABA design was used with ten-week blocks of regular non-directive meetings, cessation of meetings and then resumption; ward incidents, discharge rates and ward atmosphere during these blocks were compared. Both the non-directive and nurse-directed forms were equally associated with a reduction in ward incidents, aggressive incidents showing the greatest tendency to change; ward atmosphere and patient discharge rates did not change with community meetings.