Am J Psychiatry 1978; 135:22-28
Copyright © 1978 by American Psychiatric Association
Trends in American mental health
F Redlich and SR Kellert
Using the data collected by Hollingshead and Redlich in 1950 and their own
recent data, the authors describe trends in the mental health field over a
25-year period. They found a marked increase in admissions and readmissions
to inpatient facilities and a significant decrease in the average length of
stay; a considerable increase in outpatient treatment services; a shift in
major diagnostic categories from schizophrenia to alcoholism; an unequal
allocation of services to young versus elderly patients; discharge of many
chronic patients to nursing homes; the increased involvement of
psychiatrists in administrative work and decreased time spent in direct
patient care; and an increase in third- party insurance as a source of
patient fees.
