Psychiatric home care: a new tool for crisis intervention

The cost of psychiatric care has been rapidly increasing in recent years. Between 1984 and 1987, there was a 46 percent increase in psychiatric hospitals beds and a 60 percent increase in psychiatric units in general hospitals. This reflected a recognition by many health care systems that psychiatric patients were a good source of revenue. With this push toward more and more inpatient programs, crucial aspects of psychiatric care were left behind. Specifically, the limitations of inpatient therapy have not been recognized. Within the past five years, a new program has been developed and pioneered to use home care to prevent psychiatric hospitalizations and to also prevent the difficult transitions for psychiatric patients. Over a two-year period, this program was studied for its impact on the quality and cost of psychiatric care.