The Rehabilitation Team in a Tuberculosis Hospital: Psychosomatic Aspects

¹ The National Jewish Hospital, and the University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado.

Newer medical and surgical measures in the field of tuberculosis are changing the psychological problems of treatment and rehabilitation. At the National Jewish Hospital at Denver, patients are put on increasing ambulatory activity, regardless of the extent of the illness, within three to eight weeks after admission. Whereas formerly doctors had to encourage patients to accept long periods of inactivity and a passive orientation, now there may be the problem of the patient who clings to his illness because it meets his needs for dependency. If the treatment cures his tuberculosis in spite of his unconscious needs, he tends to develop other psychosomatic complaints. A rehabilitation team, including psychiatrist and social workers, helps not only patients but personnel to overcome the psychological barriers to real rehabilitation.