[Sociotherapy in the psychogeriatric nursing home. Possibilities for a psychogeriatric sociotherapy].

Terms as sociotherapy, environment therapy and the therapeutical environment have their origin in psychiatry and from there influenced various other treatment settings. The basic philosophy however is still the same: people live and are treated in social organizations which have an influence on their feeling of well-being and chances on recovery. Depending on the specific characteristics, each treatment setting has developed different ways of interpreting and practicing this philosophy. One of the ways of defining the psychogeriatric interpretation of sociotherapy is the analysis of the behavior of the nurse in a psychogeriatric nursing-home, with a sociotherapeutic treatment philosophy, in relation to the patients. Evaluation of behavior in terms of its sociotherapeutic characteristics is not necessarily equivalent to sociotherapeutic behavior. It however gives a clearer view of the way a philosophy is practiced and the conditions under which this is done.