Community Mental Health: A Noble Failure?

Two studies were made in the northwestern region of Illinois to determine if the community approach helped restore the social competence and reduce the build-up of chronically ill patients. In the first study there was no indication that community care was superior to that of a traditional state hospital. Seventy-four per cent of the patients in the sample, however, had a history of repeated hospitalizations. The second study evaluated only first-admission patients andfound that community-oriented programs were more effective. Both the center and the hospital had some patients for whom neither system of care was more effective in preventing chronicity. The center has established several pilot projects for managing those chronic patients.