Social class in the mental health center.

To test whether the preference for middle and upper class clients, found in psychotherapeutic clinics during the 1950s and early 1960s, exists in mental health centers, the relationships between social class and various aspects of psychiatric treatment are investigated in forty mental health centers which vary in several organizational dimensions. In general, clients are given treatment with little or no regard to social class. The variables that account for the different patterns of treatment in the two types of psychiatric treatment organizations are (1) the composition of the staffs; (2) the types and amount of individual psychotherapy given; and (3) the primary organizational goal.