Alan Stoller

Psychiatric disorders in East European refugees now in Australia

Abstract A sample of eastern European refugees who had arrived in Australia prior to 1955, and who were patients of any facility of the Victorian Mental Health Department during the period 1961–1968, were intensively interviewed to determine their war experiences, socio-cultural backgrounds, family settings, educational and work histories and adjustment problems in Australia. A control sample of non-patient refugees was interviewed along the same lines. Three groups of refugees, distinguished in terms of the severity of their war experiences (1. Jewish; 2. Polish, Russian and Ukrainian; and 3. all others) were compared with each other, and their psychiatric morbidity was related to their war experiences and other factors. Each of these groups responded differently to the hardships they had gone through.

Attempted suicides admitted to the mental health department, Victoria, Australia: a socio-epidemiological study.

THE shortcomings of statistics concerned with completed suicides have been discussed by many authors.(5, 23) However, a much more arduous task is to assess the real numbers of suicide attempts. Some authors have based their figures on admissions to one or more hospitals,<8, 11, 1~, 21, 22) whilst others have claimed to cover all recorded cases of attempted suicide. Thus, according to Kessel and Lee, (15) all cases of attempted suicide in Edinburgh are sent to one institution (Ward 3 of the Royal Infirmary). Dorpat and Boswell,~6> similarly claim to cover attempted suicides in Washington, since all are sent to the King County Hospital in accordance with the law (suicide being a crime in Washington State). From Australia, Gold(1O) claimed to cover all cases of attempted suicide in North Eastern Tasmania.

Changing Patterns of Psychiatric Hospitalization in past Fifty Years: A Cohort Study*

Nine cohorts of patients admitted between 1919 and 1962 have been followed up until 1971. Comparison has been made in terms of sex and age specific incidences of selected psychiatric disorders throughout the whole period. The results of treatment have been evaluated in terms of discharge and death rates, length of stay, re-admission rates to psychiatric institutions and total period under hospitalization. These data have been compared with those available since the introduction of the statistical system in Victoria in 1961.

Occupational Hierarchy of First Admissions to the Victorian Mental Health Department, 1962-1965

ECOLOGICAL studies of mental illness have been orientated for some time towards social class, as an important environmental variable influencing the incidence and prevalence of mental disorders in the population. Apart from some epidemiological studies, reporting different rates of psychiatric disturbances for different groups of population, the classical surveys in this area were made by Faris and Dunham’ and Hollingshead and Redlich.’

A Social Profile of Heyfield, Victoria

answers (113 in the total sample) disappeared altogether, and the number unanswered dropped from 65 in the total sample to 3. It may be noted that the dispersion for this occupation remained quite high (S.D. = 1-15) even among Catholic students but the occupational mean moved up-not unexpectedly-from 3-50 in the total sample to 3-96. Although no major differences were revealed among the occupational rankings by type of school, the prestige evaluation of the students of the Junior Teachers’ College warrants a brief comment. This is