This paper examines the timing of a patient's release from a state mental hospital and the relationship to his family's desires for discharge or further hospitalization. Family wishes concerning release are found highly related to length of hospitalization, whether or not the patient is seen professionally as dangerous, highly psychiatrically impaired, or in need of further hospitalization. Psychiatrists for a variety of reasons, it is argued, weigh family desires very heavily when making release decisions, making family wishes a significant factor in the length of a patient's hospitalization.
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James R. Greenley (1972) studied this question.
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