DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE CHRONICALLY MENTALLY-ILL

Abstract

SUMMARY During the past 20 years there have been radical changes in psychiatric care in Europe as a result of "deinstitutionalization" of psychiatric patients. That is to say, those previously kept in large public mental hospitals were now discharged and reintegrated into the community where they received treatment and care. lt had become clear that these institutions caused long term damage to individuals' health and ability to function in society. The negative image of the mental institutions and the pharmacological revolution of the 1950s lead to dramatic changes in the patient care, a movement of psychiatric care from the asylum to the community and to wholesale discharge of chronic patients. Deinstitutionalization Means: I- avoiding mental hospital admissions through the provision of community treatment alternatives, 2- the release into the community of all institutionalized patients who have been given adequate preparation for such a change, 3- the establishment and maintenance of community support systems for non institutionalized people. There is broad scientific support for the belief that an approach to treatment and care based on deinstitutionalization and .ts replacement by community treatment