Discharge-ready patients who remain hospitalized: A re-emerging problem for mental health services
- 1 March 1995
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Psychiatric Quarterly
- Vol. 66 (1), 63-85
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02238716
Abstract
There is evidence that mentally ill patients nationwide are retained in state hospitals in spite of the fact that they are discharge-ready. New Jersey provided a unique opportunity to study this phenomenon, since it had been using specific procedures to identify discharge-ready patients in state hospitals. An analysis of New Jersey state hospital data found that about 45% of the state hospital patients were designated by either the legal or the clinical system, or both, as discharge-ready. Although a substantial number of these patients were, disabled, they were assessed as being able to manage in the community with appropriate support. Characteristics and service needs of these patients are described, and the differences between those designated as discharge-ready and those who were not are examined. Recommendations are made for future research addressing the legal, clinical and social processes that affect discharge readiness.Keywords
This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit:
- Organizations and Rationality: the Odd Couple?Journal of Management Studies, 1991
- Deinstitutionalization: An Appraisal of ReformAnnual Review of Sociology, 1990
- Modeling the growth of long-stay populations in public mental hospitalsSocial Science & Medicine, 1990
- Psychodynamic ego-state therapy for eating disordersNew Directions for Mental Health Services, 1986
- Beyond DeinstitutionalizationNew England Journal of Medicine, 1984
- Sad Dreamer of the ReedsThe Expository Times, 1983
- Mental hospitals and alternative care: Noninstitutionalization as potential public policy for mental patients.American Psychologist, 1982
- A comparison of the level of care predictions of six long-term care patient assessment systems.American Journal of Public Health, 1980
- Deinstitutionalization and Mental Health ServicesScientific American, 1978
- The Psychiatric Patient's Family and Length of HospitalizationPublished by SAGE Publications ,1972