Parent families of rheumatoid arthritis patients.

This thesis is based on one section of a study coDducted jointly by four social workers on eighty patients diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis by three recognized arthritis clinics in Montreal. The study by social workers is in turn part of a pilot study, conducted in cooperation with a physician, a psychiatrist and a psychologist. The pilot study is one of a series of such to precede a larger study with the stated aims of determining adverse environmental factors responsible for mental ill health and eliminating them at the source.The minor studies and the major project are under the direction of Dr. Eric Wittkower. [...] This study deals vith the parent families of the eighty patients. The other three sections deal vith various aspects of the patients' 111ness, the adaptive processes in the patients' families and some aspects of the patients' personalities. Each of the social workers ininterviewed twenty patients. The material obtained was shared among the four participants, each d,ealing with a separate aspect of the total social work study