Increasing the community tenure of mentally disordered offenders: an assertive case management program.
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The sample of mental patients in sheltered care has a lower arrest rate than the general population in California in all categories of crimes, except for violent crimes. For violent crimes, the sheltered-care population is likely to be arrested at 1.33 times the rate of the state population, even when the heterogeneity of aggravated assault was taken into consideration. This indicates empirically that the mentally ill in sheltered care are more dangerous than the general population. For prediction of criminality, four factors are found to be significant predictors of resident criminality after 1973: (a) prior crime history, (b) age, (c) use of alcohol and drugs, and (d) sex (male). Among these factors, prior crime history is the single most powerful predictor of resident criminal activity. This is another confirmation of most of the previous research findings. Although there have been controversies over the issue of the dangerousness of the mentally ill, the results of this study, overall, support the most recent findings of studies in which the mentally ill population pose greater threats to the community than the general population. Now it is time to consider more specific and practical measures to monitor and carefully follow up the discharged population, especially those with prior crime history, and prevent further violent crimes. This will in turn help to promote the reintegration of the mentally ill in the community.
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During the past 10 years, more and more general hospitals have opened psychiatric units, many of which represent the best of modern hospital psychiatry. Therapeutic success on these units is based on control of admissions as well as on clinical programs. Pressure from the State to admit involuntary patients, recently justified by the doctrine of the "least restrictive environment," threatens to erode the quality of treatment now being provided. The concept of "least restrictive environment" is ambiguous and sometimes misleading. The treatment of involuntary psychiatric patients in general hospitals, in order to be safe and effective, requires the resolution of legal, clinical, financial, and architectural issues, as well as problems in the relationship between psychiatric units and other areas of the general hospital.
The type of psychiatric assistance carried out in Italy before Basaglia's views gained ground--that is, before 1968, when his book L'Istituzione Negata was published--is first described. The "Democratic Psychiatry" movement he launched was the mainspring of Law 180 (1978), known to have led to the closing of asylums. This law has brought about moves to create new mental health community services covering wide areas, the setting up of special diagnosis and care sections in general hospitals responsible for compulsory admissions--and overcrowding in private clinics and University clinics within general hospitals. The role of the psychiatric ward (opposed by the supporters of "Democratic Psychiatry") and of consultation-liaison psychiatry within the ambit of the general hospital is then discussed in the light of our experience.
The theoretical basis of an integrated service approach to the care of chronic mental patients is discussed. An experiment testing the Treatment Network Team (TNT) program, based on that approach, is described and results are reported. Although TNT and control patients exhibited minimal differences in symptomatology and psychopathology, those in the experimental group showed substantive improvement in psychosocial functioning. The authors conclude that flexible service systems that deemphasize locus of care and offer a range of treatment modalities have the potential for enriching the social lives of chronic mental patients.
Analysis of data from the NIMH Survey of Discharges from Non-Federal General Hospitals found that severely mentally ill patients (those with schizophrenia, other psychoses, paranoia, and major affective disorders) became an increasingly larger proportion of general hospital discharges between 1970 and 1980, with more change observed between 1975 and 1980. This seems to confirm that general hospital care is replacing at least some of the care previously provided in State mental hospitals. There has been an increase in beds in nongovernment-owned general hospitals and a decrease in beds in state hospitals. In addition, while discharge referrals from government general hospitals for severe patients were made predominantly to state hospitals in 1970, in 1980 this was rarely the case.
Eleven trends in health care and society are described and used in the construction of a future scenario for health care in Western society: 1) involution in the field of specialist medicine; 2) an epidemiologic shift from acute illness to chronic impairment; 3) more self care and mutual care; 4) more self-responsibility in health maintenance; 5) de-institutionalization; 6) changing personal values and goals; 7) revival of emotional life; 8) new appraisal of dying; 9) towards a participative society; 10) uncoupling the health care wages; 11) the emergence of a "dual strata" society. In such a society, the medical dominance in the health care system will regress. Health maintenance based on more competent self care and social networks, and similar approaches to care for patients with chronic illness, will balance a more restricted medical intervention system.
During the 1980s the number of institutional beds in Sweden has decreased in relation to the number of elderly in the population. In some communities this development has been drastic. The present paper describes how the implementation of this process in one of these communities was based on action research design. Initially most people regarded the development as a success: more elderly people were able to stay in their homes and institutional places were used more effectively. The situation today is more complicated. Elderly patients finally ending up in institutions are in greater need of care than before. Over-occupation of beds is again common, making the situation more "heavy-going" for the staff. Staff outside the institutions are also experiencing a heavier workload. In view of this, the wisdom of further de-institutionalization is now questioned.
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Levinson and Ramsay (J. Hlth soc. Behav. 20, 178, 1979) recently suggested that high life stress may be related to violent behavior among mental patients. Data are reported here from community interviews with 148 former patients and 245 respondents from the general population to further test this relationship. Self reports of the frequency of life stress events and four types of aggressive behavior ranging from arguments to assaults with weapons were obtained. High life stress was found to be associated with more frequent disputes of all types for both population. When these relationships were examined with demographic control variables, the significant effects of life stress remained only for the mental patients. The implications of these findings for a situation-based approach to violence and to stress research are considered.
One of the aims of health promotion and illness prevention is to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease that is so apparent in the developed countries, yet the very individuals who already have chronic diseases and disabling conditions constitute a sizeable population which could contribute to health promotion programs. There are two chief elements which argue for an extension of health promotion toward the chronically ill and disabled: (1) the lifestyle management which is characteristic of health promotion is similar in many respects to the comprehensive self-care regimens followed by chronically ill persons, and (2) the philosophy of independent living for disabled persons shares social foundations with the concept of health promotion and could add the strength of social advocacy to health promotion. This paper examines social and medical variables linking the two health trends of health promotion and independent living for disabled persons. Observations of a U.S. independent living program, The Timbers, are reported to illustrate an active combination of the two philosophies. Finally, sociological implications are presented, with a focus on the potential of health promotion programs.
A study of 119 chronic schizophrenics discharged to the community revealed that by 1 year post release, 50% have changed their living arrangement at least once. Housing changes, which typically involved movement from one non-institutional living situation to another, followed rehospitalization episodes and appear to be a consequence of the revolving door phenomenon. By virtue of its impact on rehospitalization, interpersonal stress in the patient's living environment has an indirect effect on housing change. The remarkable frequency with which housing changes occur among the mentally ill in both sheltered care and non-institutional living settings deserves consideration in the planning of mental health and social welfare service for this constituency.
One hundred and twenty patients presenting for admission to a state psychiatric hospital were randomly allocated into two groups. Control patients received standard hospital care and after-care. Experimental patients were not admitted if this could be avoided; instead they and their relatives were provided with comprehensive community treatment and a 24-hour crisis service. Patients with a primary diagnosis of alcohol or drug dependence, organic brain disorder or mental retardation were excluded. Most patients were suffering from psychotic disorders--more than half specifically from schizophrenia. During the 12 months study period 96% of the control patients were admitted--51% more than once. Of the experimental patients 60% were not admitted at all and only 8% were admitted more than once. Control patients spent an average of 53.5 days in psychiatric hospital, experimental patients spent an average of 8.4 days. Community treatment did not increase the burden upon the community, was considered to be significantly more satisfactory and helpful by patients and their relatives, achieved a clinically superior outcome, and cost less than standard care and after-care. The ingredients differentiating comprehensive community-based care from prevailing methods of psychiatric care are discussed.