An Expanding ‘Stage Army’ of Long-Stay Psychiatric Day-Patients

Abstract

Summary Contacts of patients with a large urban day hospital over a decade were analysed in respect of the long-stay population, its patterns of contact and rate of discharge. Two-thirds had been attending continuously for 2–17 years, and a third for 1–2 years; 60 per cent of the latter were readmissions. The majority were admitted more than once and there was great variation in their pattern of contact. The population's growth over the decade was due to a slow average admission rate of 1–2 long-stay patients per fortnight, and an even slower rate of discharge. More men than women attended, especially in the age range 25–44; at the end of the decade the number of long-stay men was still increasing.