The Economic Basis for the Development of Community Mental Health Programs

Abstract

choice between providing treatment for the mentally ill in general hospitals and community facilities or in state mental hospitals. Periods of disability have been significantly reduced by the new methods of psychiatric care. The acutely ill short-term patient may now be institutionalized and treated far more effectively and efficiently in local community facilities than in the traditional state mental hospital. Decisions to expand community facilities and extend local mental health services do not rest upon therapeutic considerations alone. There are sociological, political and, not least, economic aspects to such social policies. The relative costs of alternative ways of caring for the mentally ill and the economic efficiency of different types of institutional care are highly relevant in determining the feasibility and desirability of increasing the role of locally-oriented mental health services through newly-developed and expanded community facilities. It is the purpose of this paper to consider the development of community facilities and mental health programs within the context of economic criteria. Specifically, the economic efficiency of community activities, represented by treatment in psychiatric wards of general hospitals and in