Skip to main content
Full access
Research Article
Published Online: October 1997

The new state mental hospitals in the community

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The study examined a 95-bed locked community facility (an institute for mental disease), one of 40 such facilities in California to which patients with increasingly difficult problems in management have been referred over the past few years as an alternative to more highly structured state hospitals. The purpose was to determine the characteristics of patients admitted to such facilities and assess whether the facilities are adequate for treating them. METHODS: A hundred and one randomly selected patients in one institute for mental disease were studied by record review and by discussion of each case with staff. RESULTS: The patients were characterized by psychotic diagnoses; the presence of psychotic symptoms even though they took antipsychotic medications in the facility; and histories of previous hospitalizations, serious violence against persons, poor medication compliance, and substance abuse. Ninety-nine percent had been admitted under psychiatric conservatorship. Forty-four percent had been violent toward persons during the current admission, and the level of bizarre, socially inappropriate behavior in the facility was high. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a high-quality rehabilitation program, treating and rehabilitating difficult-to-manage patients normally treated in state hospitals in a facility that had a considerably lower degree of structure had become increasingly difficult and dangerous. The use of community alternatives to state hospitalization, which is often driven by lower costs and an ideology that highly structured care is seldom needed, is not suitable for all patients.

Formats available

You can view the full content in the following formats:

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
Pages: 1307 - 1310
PubMed: 9323750

History

Published in print: October 1997
Published online: 1 April 2006

Authors

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Export Citations

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.

Format
Citation style
Style
Copy to clipboard

View Options

View options

PDF/EPUB

View PDF/EPUB

Login options

Already a subscriber? Access your subscription through your login credentials or your institution for full access to this article.

Personal login Institutional Login Open Athens login
Purchase Options

Purchase this article to access the full text.

PPV Articles - Psychiatric Services

PPV Articles - Psychiatric Services

Not a subscriber?

Subscribe Now / Learn More

PsychiatryOnline subscription options offer access to the DSM-5-TR® library, books, journals, CME, and patient resources. This all-in-one virtual library provides psychiatrists and mental health professionals with key resources for diagnosis, treatment, research, and professional development.

Need more help? PsychiatryOnline Customer Service may be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 800-368-5777 (in the U.S.) or 703-907-7322 (outside the U.S.).

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share article link

Share