Using Inpatient Staff for Aftercare of Severely Disturbed Chronic Patients

Advances in psychopharmacology and community psychiatry have enabled many long-term patients to be discharged from mental hospitals in spite of major psychopathology. These patients frequently resist initiating and continuing in aftercare, and community agencies are often reluctant to work with them. To overcome those problems, the A ustin Unit of Boston State Hospital established a weekly day clinic primanly for former inpatients of the unit. The efficacy of using familiar staff members to bridge the gap between inpatient and outpatient care is demonstrated by comparing the continuity in aftercare of those patients with that of patients referred to the clinic from other agencies.