Abstract
“KIZUNA-NO-KAI” (in its literal meaning, “Bond-Society”) is the name of a group of psychiatric out-patients, being in activities at the Central Rehabiltation Service of the University of Tokyo Hospital.
Originally this started spontaneously as a kind of social club among patients themselves in May, 1966, which gradually has been organized into the therapeutic activities with the assistances of a psychiatrist and the occupational therapists. Throughout the whole period, the group has been basically functioning as a democratic society, being managed by the patients themselves. The therapists has been just assisting the activities in a role of satisfying the patients' needs, but in certain circumstances they gave the necessary professional help to the patients. As a result, the registration of the patients into this group is voluntarily made. In June, 1968, this group is consisted of one psychiatrist, 4 occupational therapists and 70 registered patients.
After 2 years of repeated experimental trials in this program we realized that this group activities give the in-patients, day care patients and out-patients in the after care period the opportunities to improve their social adjustability and to prevent their relapses and rehospitalizations.
The kinds of services provided in this program have been group psychotherapy, individual and group councelling, occupational therapy, recreational therapy, family councelling and emergency psychiatric cares. Some of the patients, who were away from the program or who were absent for some times, received the contacts from the therapists through letters or phones. Sometimes the doctors who were taking care of the patients individually were contacted.
This program also provided the occupational therapists with the good opportunities to get trained in individual and group therapies, and also to get keen insights about the patients and their own psychopathology.
The principle of this kind of comprehensive rehabilitation service can be applied to the organized activities in community psychiatry in the similar system of registration, which would promote the mental health and prevention of mental illness.
