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Psychiatric and social outcomes of a rural district general hospital in the 1990s
Author(s) -
Habibis Daphne,
Schneider Rosemary,
Hazelton Michael,
Bowling Alison,
Davidson John
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-0979.2002.00242.x
Subject(s) - medicine , worry , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , general hospital , psychiatry , unit (ring theory) , social functioning , naturalistic observation , family medicine , psychology , clinical psychology , anxiety , distress , mathematics education , social psychology
: This study investigates the psychiatric and social outcomes of treatment by the psychiatric unit of a district general hospital in a semirural region of Australia. The study is a naturalistic investigation of a routine clinical service, and utilizes a longitudinal panel design. Repeat interviews at admission, 1 month and 1 year later were conducted with all consenting respondents ( n = 57) with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or related condition, as well as with their nominated relatives. Patients showed significant improvements on clinical measures ( P < 0.001) and a high rate of continuation of medication. Most measures of social functioning showed improvement although few were statistically significant. Patient and relative satisfaction was high. Relative worry showed significant improvement in the first month ( P < 0.05). There was a high rate of readmission (31 patients) and mean days in hospital were also high at 43 days. These results suggest that basic district general hospital care, operating under both budgetary restrictions and the difficulties associated with recruiting staff can nonetheless provide a credible service. However, the results fall short of what research tells us can be achieved when services are adequately funded and more specifically targeted to meet patient needs .