Community treatment of mental illness.

THE isolation of the mental hospital, which was practically absolute before the Mental Treatment Act of 1930, is rapidly disappearing, and more and more psychiatric patients are being treated in the community instead of in the hospital. The hospital’s first link with the community was the outpatient department. Later liaison was gradually established with outside services such as probation departments, industrial medical officers, child-guidance centres, and the Ministry of Labour. Social psychiatry continued to grow steadily, but of late years the pace has quickened as more and more community centres, day hospitals, and night hospitals have been opened. These have varied in form and setting. Some are independent, while some are associated with mental hospitals and some with psychiatric units in general hospitals. Some offer domiciliary visits, some do not.