Psychiatric Units in District General Hospitals and Traditional Mental Hospitals: Some Recent Evidence

1982 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mahadevan ◽  
D. P. Forster
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Routine Data ◽  
District General Hospital ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
General Hospitals ◽  
Psychiatric Units ◽  
Patient Service ◽  
The Way

SummaryUsing routine data from the Mental Health Enquiry, the work of two district general hospital (DGH) units and a mental hospital was examined. There was a marked difference in the way the two DGH units operated and between the way the mental hospital worked as support hospital or as independent complete in-patient service. The operational policy practised by psychiatrists is more important than the structure of the system. It is important to establish sensitive policies for a wide variety of organizational structures.

Suicide Prevention

1992 ◽  
Vol 160 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. G. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Community Care ◽  
District General Hospital ◽  
Residential Area ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Local District ◽  
Health Centres

In 1989 a crisis occurred in a West Country seaside town. Its psychiatric services had been regarded as a vanguard of community care, having been fully established some three years previously when the in-patient facilities which had been based in a mental hospital some 15 miles away were closed. The framework of the new-style service consisted of five mental health centres scattered throughout the residential area and a 60-bed in-patient unit, based in the grounds of the local district general hospital.

The effect of a mental hospital strike on general hospital psychiatric services

1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 913-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross M. G. Norman ◽  
Ashok K. Malla
Keyword(s):  
General Hospital ◽  
Suicidal Behaviour ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
General Hospitals ◽  
Hospital Units ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Psychiatric Units ◽  
The Impact

SynopsisData collected from 6043 psychiatric in-patient records were analysed to assess the impact of a strike at a mental hospital on in-patient services in general hospital psychiatric units in St John's, Newfoundland, Canada. As a whole, during the strike general hospital units showed an increase in the number of involuntary admissions, the number of prior mental hospital admissions of patients, and indications of violent or suicidal behaviour; and a decrease in the occupational status of patients admitted and the prescription of minor tranquillizers. There was also evidence of considerable variation between general hospitals in the extent to which their admission pattern changed during the strike and the permanence of some of the strike effects. The data indicate that all patients showing violent or suicidal behaviour who would normally have been admitted to the mental hospital were treated in the general hospital units during the strike. On the other hand, a large number of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, personality disorder or mental retardation, who normally would have been admitted to the mental hospital, apparently went without hospitalization during the strike. A substantial proportion of this latter group would usually have been admitted involuntarily.

Integration of hospital care for the mentally ill: a status report

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton G. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
District General Hospital ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Status Report ◽  
Tier System ◽  
Psychiatric Units

SYNOPSISAnalysis of DHSS statistics from the Mental Health Enquiry for 1975 indicates that, contrary to some predictions, district general hospital psychiatric units (DGHU) are assuming a proportionate share of the burden of hospital care for most groups of mentally ill individuals. Comparisons of admissions to mental illness hospitals and DGHUs indicate no major differences in most categories of patient characteristics (age, sex, order of admission and diagnosis); where differences do exist, they appear to be decreasing. Concern that DGHUs might ‘cream off’ patients with less serious illnesses, with a resultant ‘two-tier’ system of mental hospital care, would thus appear to be unwarranted.

scholarly journals A survey of general hospital in-patients detained under Section 5(2) of the 1983 Mental Health Act

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 733-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Buller ◽  
David Storer ◽  
Rachel Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Conversion Rate ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Rare Occurrence ◽  
General Hospitals ◽  
Code Of Practice ◽  
Mental Health Act

Detention of general hospital in-patients under Section 5(2) is a rare occurrence. This study of the use of Section 5(2) in general hospitals uncovered a frequent neglect in following the guidelines of The Mental Health Act and The Code of Practice. Surprisingly the conversion rate of Section 5(2) to Section 2 or 3 was similar to that seen in a number of other studies conducted in the quite different setting of large psychiatric hospitals. A number of patient characteristics were identified that appeared to influence whether 5(2)s were converted to an admission Section. Each general hospital needs to develop guidelines to be followed when staff feel that a patient should be detained under Section 5(2) – an example of such a policy is included.

scholarly journals Coming in from the cold. From psychiatric to general hospital. The Irish experience

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-98
Author(s):  
Dermot Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Care ◽  
System Of Care ◽  
Psychiatric Unit ◽  
General Hospitals ◽  
Hospital System ◽  
Self Sufficiency

AbstractThe metamorphosis from an extensive mental hospital system of care, rooted in a culture and tradition of self-sufficiency and isolation, to the concept and practise of delivery of psychiatric care in general hospitals is described. The obstacles, psychological and practical, to be overcome in this change process are outlined. The place of the general hospital psychiatric unit in psychiatric and general medical care is outlined. Relevant matters of design and management are briefly explored.

Community Psychiatry in London. A Three-Year Analysis

1969 ◽  
Vol 115 (521) ◽  
pp. 465-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Oldham
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Admission Rate ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Hospital Units ◽  
Psychiatric Units ◽  
Hospital Patients

The decade following the end of World War II saw a progressive rise in the admission rate to mental hospitals in this country. The population of mental hospitals rose to a peak of 152,000 in England and Wales in 1954, since when there has been a steady decline. These fluctuations have been analysed by such authors as Norton (1961) and Tooth and Brooke (1961). The latter attributed the more recent decline to increased efficiency of treatment and rehabilitation, and predicted a continued fall so reducing the mental hospital patients by about 1970 that they would be covered by an allocation of 1 · 8 beds per thousand population. Maclay (1963) believed this prediction to err if anything on the conservative side and the Ministry of Health (1962) based its plans for psychiatric beds upon this ratio. In these plans the Ministry accepted the thesis that short-stay psychiatric patients should preferably be treated in general hospital units near to their homes whilst patients needing a longer hospital stay should be catered for in specialized hospitals for that purpose. The prediction in the Ministry of Health's Hospital Plan (1962) that there would be a steadily declining mental hospital population has been severely criticized by Gore and Jones (1961) but supported by Orwin and Sim (1965) in their analysis of the effects of the provision of acute general hospital psychiatric units in the Birmingham area. The importance of accurately assessing the psychiatric hospital bed needs over the next twenty years, given a full range medical and ancillary services, is vital to future planning and has been much in the author's mind when writing this paper.

Psychiatric intensive care after two years

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 421-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. O'Dwyer ◽  
B. S. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
District General Hospital ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Psychiatric Unit ◽  
Health Authorities

The following is a descriptive study of Willoughby Ward, a psychiatric intensive care unit, opened in Parkside Hospital, Macclesfield, in July 1986. It provides a moderately secure facility for the treatment of psychiatric patients within both Crewe and Macclesfield Health Authorities. The unit has 15 beds, of which two are funded and used by Crewe area, where, unlike Macclesfield, the psychiatric unit is located in the district general hospital. Managed as a locked ward, the patients are admitted under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983. As well as being mentally ill as defined in the Act, the patients were disturbed to a degree as to be unmanageable in open conditions.

Planning Mental Health Services: I. Background and Key Issues*

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Wasylenki ◽  
Paula Goering ◽  
Eric Macnaughton
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Psychiatric Hospitals ◽  
Co Morbidity ◽  
Psychiatric Units ◽  
Key Issues

Planning mental health services is a complex task requiring an understanding of background developments and key issues related to mental health services. In Canada, the deinstitutionalization of patients attempted to shift the locus of care from provincial psychiatric hospitals to general hospital psychiatric units. This resulted in the isolation of provincial psychiatric hospitals, general hospital psychiatric units and community mental health programs, with little overall accountability for the services provided — three solitudes. To move toward the creation of responsible, integrated systems a number of issues must be addressed: target population(s); the roles of provincial psychiatric and general hospitals; community support services; continuity of care; co-morbidity; consumerism; and methods of integration. In the development of a comprehensive mental health plan, each issue should be recognized and decisions made which are in keeping with current knowledge. A companion report will survey Canadian initiatives in mental health planning and discuss approaches to many of the issues identified.

scholarly journals Psychogeriatric Liaison: A Service to a District General Hospital

1986 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 312-314
Author(s):  
R. M. Fraser ◽  
Rosemary Healy
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
General Hospital ◽  
District General Hospital ◽  
Psychiatric Practice ◽  
Liaison Psychiatry ◽  
General Hospitals ◽  
Health Care Institutions

Liaison psychiatry has been an influential element in hospital psychiatric practice for over a decade now. It is concerned with the ‘diagnosis, treatment, study, and prevention of psychiatric disorders among patients in non-psychiatric health care institutions, especially in general hospitals’. This paper describes and evaluates a project in which the principles of liaison psychiatry were incorporated into a psychogeriatric service.

scholarly journals Spain. The new mental health care system in Navarra, Spain

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 487-489
Author(s):  
Jone Aizarna ◽  
Jose A. Inchauspe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
General Hospitals ◽  
Mental Health Care System ◽  
Health Area ◽  
Health Centres ◽  
Psychiatric Units ◽  
Day Hospitals

Your two correspondents are psychiatrists in their mid-30s working at two publicly-funded mental health centres in Navarra. We share the responsibility for co-ordinating the eight mental health centres, two day hospitals and two psychiatric units in general hospitals in the province. Each of us takes care of half these resources, grouped in a ‘mental health area’.

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