Family care as a useful alternative to the long-term hospital confinement of geropsychiatric patients.

Abstract

Abstract:The present philosophy in the treatment of mental patients tends to bring the problem back to the community. In such a rehabilitative program, the Binghamton State Hospital is using supervised family‐care homes as a successful alternative to the long‐term hospital confinement of homeless geropsy‐chiatric patients.Within the administration of Binghamton State Hospital, there are 60 family‐care homes for 390 patients, of whom about one third are over 65 years of age. In some homes there are mixed populations with respect to both age and sex. In October 1969 there were 77 geriatric females and 36 geriatric males under family care. The average age was 69 for the females and 71 for the males. The average length of hospital stay before placement in family care was nine years and ten months. The average duration of residence in a family‐care home up to October 1969 was four years and four months. The homes are selected by the State Hospital Administration and are supervised by various teams of the unitized Broome County Unit. A team consists of a physician, a social worker, nurses, attendants, an occupational therapist and a recreational therapist. It instructs the family‐care “mother” and the patient about the various methods for resocialization, takes care of medical and psychiatric supervision, and makes arrangements for eventual working activities.Placement in a family‐care home has three practical results: 1) elderly psychiatric patients are returned to the community without being under the stress of having to manage their own daily problems; 2) in the hospital there is better utilization of the beds for patients who require residential treatment programs; and 3) family care is more economical for the hospital and, consequently, for society.