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Unmet Needs of the Chronically Mentally Ill: Will Nursing Respond?
Author(s) -
Aiken Linda H.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
image: the journal of nursing scholarship
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1547-5069
pISSN - 0743-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1547-5069.1987.tb00607.x
Subject(s) - mentally ill , nursing , mental health , medicine , continuum of care , public health , psychiatry , health care , psychology , mental illness , economics , economic growth
The chronically mentally ill remain a neglected and incapacitated group despite a number of model programs that demonstrate the potential effectiveness of comprehensive, community‐based, health and social services. This is the result of a number of factors including the fragmentation of services and the lack of training of health professionals including nurses to care for patients in such diverse new settings as group homes, jails, city streets and homeless shelters, and acute psychiatric emergency centers. This paper reviews the status of public mental health services and suggests some promising strategies to improve the effectiveness of care for the chronically mentally ill.