ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the development of a method to assess the social climate or treatment environment of hospital-based psychiatric and substance abuse programs. The social climate is the "personality" of a setting or environment, such as a treatment program, a workplace, or a family. The fifty-five state hospital programs include programs for acute and those for chronic psychiatric patients, programs for substance abuse patients, programs for youth, and programs with specialized treatment orientations such as cognitive behavioral and psychosocial rehabilitation. American patients' and staff members' preferences are relatively similar, although staffs prefer somewhat more emphasis on each of the relationship and personal growth dimensions and less on staff control. These differences are comparable to those that exist in patients' and staff members' perceptions of actual programs. The Ward Atmosphere Scale has adequate psychometric properties and can be used to compare programs in different sets of hospitals and programs in the United States and the United Kingdom.