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Information in mental health services: a tripartite system
Author(s) -
Brooke E. M.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1980.tb07703.x
Subject(s) - mental health , vocabulary , service (business) , information system , cohort , health care , medicine , epidemiology , psychiatry , psychology , business , marketing , economics , economic growth , linguistics , philosophy , electrical engineering , engineering
In recent years many countries have developed national statistics of persons treated for mental disorders and handicaps. These usually give numbers and rates of people admitted to or discharged from psychiatric hospitals, the patients being described in terms of those sociodemographic characteristics which were thought likely to shed light on the epidemiology of mental disorder, provide clues to etiology and indicate high risk groups. It is now realised that what was being provided was “service utilisation statistics!” When the mental health services were provided and administered independently of general health services, “care” was an acceptable concept, but with the integration of the services, “cure” is what is being sought. Data on what happens to individual patients who pass through, or get caught up in, various forms of services, have therefore become necessary. Meanwhile the cost of health services has risen, hospital management has developed into a science, input, output and cost‐benefit are new and significant words in the vocabulary of hospital administrators. Information must therefore be provided to show what resources exist and how they are being used in relation to cost. This information must be produced as quickly and cheaply as possible. It is with this objective in view that the following tripartite system for basic data collection is proposed, consisting of periodic censuses, cohort studies and cost analysis.