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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
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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

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