Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T03:34:54.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social morbidity of a long-stay mental hospital population with chronic schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Steven Milne
Affiliation:
St Nicholas Hospital, Jubilee Road, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT
David Curson
Affiliation:
Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, Academic Unit, Horton Hospital, Epsom, Surrey and Medical Director, Department of Psychological Medicine, The Royal Masonic Hospital, Ravenscourt Park, London, W6
Alcuin Wilkie
Affiliation:
Horton Hospital, Epsom, Surrey KT19 8PZ
Christos Pantelis
Affiliation:
Mental Health Research Institute, Royal Park Hospital, Park Street, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

As part of the shift towards community care, a number of the large mental hospitals throughout the United Kingdom have now closed and many more are due for closure. In a review of deinstitutionalisation, Thornicroft & Bebbington (1989) concluded that the run-down of hospitals was outstripping the provision of new community facilities. Between 1974 and 1984 the mental hospital population fell by 25,000. However, the increase in residential places provided by local authorities and by the private and voluntary sectors totalled only 3,000. Inadequate planning and provision could give rise to discharged patients facing the prospect of isolated, segregated and impoverished lives with a high likelihood of homelessness and recurrent admission.

Type
Original articles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1993

Footnotes

A full list of references and details of statistical analyses are available on request to Dr Milne.

References

Carson, J., Shaw, L. & Willis, W. (1989) Which patients first: a study of the closure of a large mental hospital. Health Trends, 21, 117120.Google Scholar
Curson, D. A., Patel, M., Liddle, P. F. & Barnes, T. R. E. (1988) Psychiatric morbidity of a long stay hospital population with chronic schizophrenia and implications for future community care. British Medical Journal, 297, 819822.10.1136/bmj.297.6652.819CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owens, D. G. C. & Johnstone, E. C. (1980) The disabilities of chronic schizophrenia – their nature and the factors contributing to their development. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 384395.10.1192/bjp.136.4.384CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornicroft, G. & Bebbington, P. (1989) Deinstitutionalisation – from hospital closure to service development. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 739753.10.1192/bjp.155.6.739CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.