Social and Psychological Correlates of Lengthy Stay in Helwan Mental Health Hospital

Abstract

SUMMARY U ndoubtedly psychiatric Hospitals are benificial for mental health of the majority of patients but for some patients, these often stressful environment can be far from therapeutic. In psychiatric practice, some mentally ill patients spend their life in continuous or prolonged hospitalization, that is, as long stay patients, and it depends on many factors like severity of their illness, adherence to treatment, social factors…etc. But a lot of patients still hospitalized in mental hospitals inspite of symptoms improvement, so many studies focused on social factors. As social life affects the patient and affects progression of the illness especially schizophrenic patients, acceptance of the patient in the community depend on many factors that could prolong patient stay in psychiatric hospitals. People with schizophrenia are often stigmatized and avoided by others, societal misinformation about schizophrenia undoubtedly plays a role in contributing to this. However, it is also reasonable to expect that some of the social deficits that characterize people with this disorder create difficulties for them and for the people with whom they interact. Mentally ill patients also exposed to violence, and some of them become homeless after discharge from mental hospitals. During the last decades, deinstitutionalization has led to impressive changes in the use of psychiatric services all over the western world, length of stay in psychiatric hospitals has decreased dramatically, mental health advocates, policy makers, and researchers have continued to focus on the negative consequences of long-term hospitalization of psychiatric patients, prolonged in-patient admissions impact negatively on quality of life, and deplete health care resources. Studies of patients returning to the community compared with those remaining in institutions show not only better quality of life and larger friendship networks, but also reductions in dependence on pharmacotherapy and lower mortality rates. In some studies comparing between two groups of patients, one group was admitted for a long time in a mental hospital while the other group was discharged to community homes, the study found that those who were discharged showed significantly fewer behavioral problems and had acquired significantly more skills than those who remained. This study (case control cross sectional observational study) is studying correlates for lengthy stay of mental ill patients.

Study population Consist of 2 groups:  Group A: taken from schizophrenic inpatients hospitalized in Helwan mental health hospital for more than 1 year, according to definition of long-stay (Jakubaschk et al., 1993).  Group B: group of schizophrenic outpatients receiving their treatment at the Helwan mental health hospital outpatient clinic after being admitted for less than 3 months.