Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T05:22:16.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Mental Hospital: A Pattern for the Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

A. Orwin*
Affiliation:
Hollymoor Hospital, Birmingham 31

Extract

The great changes that have occurred in mental hospitals over the last fifteen years due to improvements in treatment of both acute and chronic psychiatric illnesses are reflected in the dramatic running down of the long-stay patient population. The Ministry of Health (1961) and Tooth and Brooke (1961) envisaged a continuing fall in the number of beds for psychiatric patients, so that by the mid 1970s these would have been reduced by nearly 50 per cent. from their 1960 figure (3·4 to 1·8 per thousand population). This prediction has been criticized because it was considered too optimistic, while the implication that the mental hospital, as we know it today, might cease to exist has provoked controversy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1967 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, A. A. (1958). “Breaking up the mental hospital.” Lancet, ii, 253254.Google Scholar
Berry, C., and Orwin, A. (1966). “No fixed abode: a survey of mental hospital admissions.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 122, 10191025.Google Scholar
Cooper, A. B., and Early, D. F. (1961). “Evolution in the mental hospital. Review of the hospital population.” Brit. med. J., i, 16001603.Google Scholar
Gore, C. P., and Jones, K. (1961). “Survey of a long-stay mental hospital population.” Lancet, ii, 544546.Google Scholar
Gore, C. P., and Jones, K. Taylor, W., and Ward, B. (1964). “A regional census of psychiatric hospital patients.” Ibid., ii, 457460.Google Scholar
Hassall, C., Spencer, A. M., and Gross, K. W. (1965). “Some changes in the composition of a mental hospital population.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 420428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, K., and Sidebotham, R. (1962). Mental Hospitals at Work. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Little, J. G. (1963). “An original plan for integration of psychiatric services to an urban community.” Lancet, ii, 11591160.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health (1963). Health and Welfare. The Development of Community Care. H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Ministry of Health (1961) H.M. (61) 25.Google Scholar
Orwin, A., and Sim, M. (1965). “The mental hospital: effects of an alternative psychiatric service.” Lancet, i, 644647.Google Scholar
Registrar General (1964). Statistical Review of England and Wales 1960. (Supplement on Mental Health). H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Smith, S. (1961). “Psychiatry in general hospitals, Manchester's integrated scheme.” Lancet, i, 11581159.Google Scholar
Tooth, G. C., and Brooke, E. M. (1961). “Trends in the mental hospital population and their effect on future planning.” Ibid., i, 710713.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.