National Trends in Hospitalization

The past two decades have witnessed several important trends in mental health care: a decline in the resident census in public mental hospitals, an increase in outpatients treatment and facilities, relative stability in the number of hospitalization episodes per 100,000 population, and briefer duration of hospitalization. The combined result of these trends is increased pluralism, diversity, and deinstitutionalization in mental health care. The changes are primarily the consequences of the success of psychopharmacologic agents, new forms of psychotherapy, changing attitudes of the public and the profession, and increased financial support by the federal government.