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Deinstitutionalization: A Semantic Analysis
Author(s) -
Bachrach Leona L.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1989.tb01562.x
Subject(s) - vagueness , decentralization , phenomenon , service (business) , medicine , nursing , sociology , psychology , political science , business , epistemology , computer science , law , philosophy , marketing , artificial intelligence , fuzzy logic
Deinstitutionalization is a concept with multiple definitions and referents, and focused efforts must be made to remove some of the vagueness from this complex concept. An adequate definition of deinstitutionalization includes three primary processes: depopulation, or the shrinking of state hospital censuses; diversion, or the deflection of potential institutional admissions to community‐based service settings; and decentralization, or the broadening of responsibility for patient care from a single service entity to multiple service entities, with an attendant fragmentation of authority. Deinstitutionalization is a fact, a process, and a philosophy, and disjunctions among these aspects of the phenomenon must be reconciled.