Community Care and the Discharge of Patients from Mental Hospitals

Abstract

In Britain the movement towards “Community Care” gathers apace. Segregation techniques in their traditional forms are steadily losing ground to newer community based alternatives. Both America and Britain have seen a massive reduction in the register of patients resident in mental hospitals; specifically in America from a peak of 560,000, and in Britain 165,000 in 1955, to some 273,000 and 70,000 respectively. And how has this been achieved? Through the rhetoric of “community care,” whose influence over policy in hospital admissions and discharges has been particularly remarkable, according to Peter Sedgwick, in that it does not in reality exist. America has been swift to adopt this new panacea “community care” where the emptying of asylums has turned out to have unforeseen problems. Creedmoor asylum for the borough of Queens in New York released 3,000 patients within a few months. Britain has been rather slow to follow—perhaps a little less ruthless—but the reduction of beds continues.

Discharge procedures for mentally ill people: The prespective of former psychiatric patients on their professional social network

“…Presumably the duration of the illness is of major importance (Bean & Mounser, 1989). On the one hand, some of the respondents are faced with too lengthy contacts, which could be a manifestation of the psychiatric power structure (its control function will not let people off the hook).…”

“…Community care increases the power structure, status and control system of psychiatry by extending its range of contact to include the friends and families of mentally ill people (Bean & Mounser, 1989). Professional intervention largely takes place in the primary networks of mentally ill people and increases the number of people with professional contacts whether in hospital or not.…”

Discharge procedures for mentally ill people The perspectives of professionals and former psychiatric patients on their quality of life

“…Massive and rapid communication in a increasingly urbanized society promotes a growing indifference to other people and to what happens in the world (Daun, 1989;Asplund, 1992). The importance the professionals attach to various general goals and the goal-reaching process play a crucial part in how they view human beings (Bean & Mounser, 1989). Most institutions accept society's distribution of economic and political power as given, and there is a general willingness to shape established practices, services, goals and visions to meet the demands of those who have political and economic power (Lerner, 1992).…”