Trends in American mental health
- 1 January 1978
- journal article
- Published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing in American Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 135 (1) , 22-28
- https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.135.1.22
Abstract
Using the data collected by Hollingshead and Redlich in 1950 and their own recent data, the authors describe trends in the mental health field over a 25-year period. They found a marked increase in admissions and readmissions to inpatient facilities and a significant decrease in the average length of stay; a considerable increase in outpatient treatment services; a shift in major diagnostic categories from schizophrenia to alcoholism; an unequal allocation of services to young versus elderly patients; discharge of many chronic patients to nursing homes; the increased involvement of psychiatrists in administrative work and decreased time spent in direct patient care; and an increase in third-party insurance as a source of patient fees.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Mental Health System and the Future AgedThe Gerontologist, 1975
- PATTERNS OF PSYCHIATRIC PRACTICEAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 1959