Patterns of patient contact with psychiatric services

Summary

Case Register data were utilised to compare the patterns of contact with psychiatric services made by patients from a single geographical area in London admitted to a teaching hospital, a mental hospital, or a psychiatric unit in a general hospital during the early part of 1969. Patterns of care during individual episodes were clearly different in the settings studied, but the duration of care was similar in each case. Similar lengths of time were spent during a three year period in contact with local services by patients whose ‘index admission’ was to the different hospitals. The results suggest that management policies may affect the kind of contact which patients have with psychiatric facilities without any marked general effect upon the overall duration of that contact.