Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:1273-1276
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
The value of hospital-based treatment for the homeless mentally ill
MI Bennett, JE Gudeman, L Jenkins, A Brown and MB Bennett
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston.
The access of the homeless mentally ill to the benefits of psychiatric
hospitalization has been excessively limited by deinstitutionalization, the
devaluation of the benefits of inpatient evaluation and treatment, a
shortage of public-sector psychiatric beds, and a tendency to regard the
homeless mentally ill as untreatable. A pilot program was devised to
increase the access of the homeless mentally ill to short-term
hospital-based treatment within a public mental health system in which beds
are in short supply. The program's usefulness demonstrates the value of
hospital-based treatment for this population and suggests that
hospital-based treatment is currently underutilized.
