The Effect on State Hospitalization of a Community Mental Health/Mental Retardation Center
JACK A. WOLFORD M.D.1,
JOHN HITCHCOCK M.D.2,
DAVID L. ELLISON PH.D.3,
ANNE C. SONIS M.S.W.4, , and
FRED SMITH M.S.W.4
1 Professor and Chief of Social Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
2 Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Western Psychiatric Institute Community Study Center
3 Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh
4 Research Social Worker, University of Pittsburgh
The authors used comparative rates of slate hospitalization to measure the effect of their mental health/mental retardation center. Census tracts from their catchment area were matched with census tracts from an area that does not have such a center but that is served by the same state hospital. Lower rates of admissions to the state hospital and decreased chronic hospitalization were found in the catchment area population, and the center's activities were found to be related to these changes.
