This retrospective study evaluates the effect of the addition of a mobile psychiatrist to a 24-hour crisis intervention team, on the number of admissions, to the local state and private hospitals, of residents of the team's catchment area. During the Program period, the psychiatrist was available at the site of the crisis to provide immediate psychiatric treatment. The number of admissions to the hospitals during the Program period was then compared to those of the corresponding periods of the two previous years and of the year after, by means of a time series statistical analysis. When the on-site services of a psychiatrist were added to the mobile crisis intervention program a sharp decrease in state hospital admissions took place, without any increase in private hospital admissions. This decrease was followed by a definite rebound, after the on-site services of the psychiatrist were terminated, and throughout the following year.
Although home visits by psychiatrists have been shown to be an effective treatment strategy, the practice is not a common one in the United States. A survey of psychiatrists (n = 212) examined their attitudes toward home visits and their recent practice patterns. The researchers hypothesized that psychiatrists employed by community mental health centers were more likely to have a positive attitude toward home visits and were more likely to treat patients in their own homes than psychiatrists not working at such centers. This hypothesis was not confirmed. While a majority of the respondents agreed that home visits had diagnostic and treatment value, only 15 percent had made a home visit in the past year.
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