Premium
The consequences of an open referral system to a community mental health service
Author(s) -
Marriott S.,
Malone S.,
Onyett S.,
Tyrer P.
Publication year - 1993
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.1600-0447.1993.tb03420.x
Subject(s) - referral , mental health , service (business) , mental illness , mental health service , medicine , agency (philosophy) , family medicine , intervention (counseling) , psychiatry , business , philosophy , epistemology , marketing
The first 590 patients referred to a community mental health service (the Early Intervention Service) in an inner‐city district were separated into groups based on their referral source. The service has an open referral system allowing any agency (including patients) to contact the service by letter or by telephone, and priority is given to patients with serious mental illness. The results of open referral showed that the number of referrals was adequate for the service to process, the proportion of inappropriate referrals was similar in all referral agencies, and milder cases of mental illness were referred more often from doctors than from other agencies. It is concluded that an open referral system is likely to be more sensitive to need and has some advantage over closed referral arrangements in inner‐city areas.