Medical Problems of Chronic Patients in a Community Support Program

A study of a group of chronic mentally ill patients from an intensive community support program revealed that 53 percent of the subjects had undiagnosed medical problems and 36 percent had known medical problems requiring initiation of or a change in treatment. These high percentages may be explained by the severity of the subjects' psychiatric problems, the questionable quality of their past physical care, and the difficulties chronic patients have in appropriately seeking and using either physical or mental outpatient health care. The author asserts that community support programs must provide continuing assistance with physical health care and offers suggestions for better addressing the problem.