Indiana Consortium For Mental Health
Services Research
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

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Abstract

Reprint # 21: SAYING GOODBYE TO MIDWEST STATE: NOTES ON LEAVETAKING AND INSTITUTIONS

We examined staff reactions of patient leavetaking experiences from a large Mid-­western state mental hospital by indepth interview and observation. The social problem of note here is the deinstitutionalization of the seriously mentally ill; we briefly describe this phenomenon. We rely largely on staff and administrative accounts of the significance of leavetaking to patients to propose a tentative structure and vocab­ulary of both institutional and noninstitutional leavetaking for the general culture. We suggest the ideal model for such an institutional leavetaking as the one on which we draw, as well as suggesting what may happen when this expectation is thwarted. In the process, we illustrate the ways in which leavetaking functions in the social structure, as well as the importance of leavetaking on the interpersonal level.