Changing Population of Mental Hospitals

Changing population of mental hospitals.

A number of publications in recent years have pointed out that, as a result of alterations in the laws relating to the care of the insane, of new methods of treatment, and of the changing public attitude to mental illness, important changes have occurred during the last 25 years in the type of patient admitted to hospital, and in the average length of stay. Fitzgerald (1954), Norris (1952), and...

Changing pattern of Russian hospitals.

Although inpatient treatment figures so prominently in Soviet medical practice, little information is published about even basic characteristics of the hospital system. The annual abstract of statistics records only number of hospitals, total bed complements, and bed-to-population ratios for the 15 republics and the Union as a whole. Fortunately a more detailed picture can be assembled for the ...

Efficiency of Mental Hospitals.

Civilized communities spend much of their resources on the care of the sick. In present-day Britain nearly half the hospital beds are occupied by the mentally ill, so that even a small improvement in the treatment of these patients will be profitable, both in alleviating suffering and in reducing the burden on the community. In the work reported here, we have adopted certain criteria by which t...

A survey of mental hospitals and mental deficiency institutions in the Birmingham region. I. Mental hospitals.

The problem of providing adequate care and treatment for patients suffering from mental disorder has become more acute in recent years for many reasons, not least amongst them being the increased numbers and longevity of the population in conjunction with their greater willingness to seek early advice and treatment. As a result, mental hospitals are faced with the dilemma of increasing their ad...

Mental Hospitals at Work