The British Journal of Psychiatry 131: 41-48 (1977)
© 1977 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Eighteen years of community psychiatric service in the island of Samso

J Nielsen and JA Nielsen

An analysis has been made of patients aged 15 + referred to the community psychiatric service in a Danish rural population during 18 years. The mean referral rate per year was 17.9 per 1,000. The majority of the patients (79 per cent) were referred to the clinic by the general practitioners, and it is stressed that a close and good co- operation between the psychiatrists and the local physicians is one of the most important factors in establishing a good community psychiatric service. Only 11 per cent of all referrals were admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The admission frequency for psychoses was only 19 per cent, and it was estimated that it would have been approximately 44 per cent higher, if the service had been of the usual hospital-oriented type. Forty-three per cent of the patients were visited by the psychiatrist in their home at least once and 42 per cent of all 6,000 consultations were home visits. When evaluating the treatment possibilities it was considered that approximately 50 per cent of all patients referred could be treated by the local physicians after examination by psychiatrists and discussion of the cases with them.