Psychiatric day-care--the new chronic population?

In recent years, with the growing emphasis on community psychiatry, day-care has become a major form of provision for psychiatric patients in the community. Since the inception of the National Health Service, the number of psychiatric dayhospitals in England and Wales has risen from two in 1949 to 65 in 1966 (Department of Health and Social Security, 1969). Large numbers of patients are currently enrolled in psychiatric day-facilities. There is clearly a need for evaluative studies of this mode of care, particularly as few systematic studies have been carried out so far. In a previous communication, the authors reported the first part of a study of the functioning of the psychiatric day-services in Birmingham (Hassall, Gath, and Cross, 1972). A description was given of the psychiatric and social characteristics of all patients attending the seven Birmingham dayhospitals during a census week in November 1968. The present paper reports the findings of the second part of the enquiry, which was concerned with the attendance patterns and modes of discharge during the 12 months following the census week.