Experiences of Discharged Chronic Schizophrenic Patients in Various Types of Living Group

Abstract

HIS paper is based on a study of the outcome of 240 male chronic mental hospital patients from seven hospitals, which together provide 15,000 of the 37,000 mental hospital beds in the London area. For the purpose of this inquiry chronic patients were defined as those who were discharged from hospital after a continuous stay of at least two years: readmissions were included. The period of two years was chosen because once a patient has remained continuously in a mental hospital for two years his chances of discharge are relatively small: in England and Wales they range from approximately I in 12 in the third year of stay, to 1 in 100 after ten years, and 1 in 200 after thirty years (1, cf. tables M22 and M29). About 80 per cent of the current population of mental hospitals are formed by such chronic patients (1, 2, 3). The major aims of the investigation were (1) to provide systematic data on what happened to such patients once discharged by all methods, including escape, and (2) to make a preliminary evaluation of the influence of social factors on outcome. Other criteria for inclusion in the series were (1) age on discharge 20-65 years; (2) born in the British Isles; (3) discharged to an address in the Greater London area. Information about the patient's outcome was obtained through interviews, in their homes, with key persons who had intimate knowledge of the patient during the first year of discharge, and also, if possible, with persons who knew his preadmission history. Such key persons, typically mothers, wives, sisters, and landladies, and sometimes the patients themselves,