It's the staff that keeps the patients talking.

This article is a critical look at the ingredients necessary to encourage chronic psychiatric patients to speak in a group setting. This study suggests that those chronically hospitalized patients with little speech can be encouraged to increase their verbalizations. Staff presence was the critical factor in the increase of patient speech. The opportunity to gain unusual privileges did not substantially increase the patient speech. In essence, this study indicates that as the amount of conversation from the nursing staff increases, a corresponding increase in patient verbalization occurs.