Moving psychiatric patients to a new hospital

The focus of this article is on the process used to inform, prepare, and actually move (without incident) 129 psychiatric patients to a new hospital. Various strategies to prepare patients for and engage them in the move are detailed, including discussions with patients about various aspects of the move during daily morning life management meetings, surveys, tours of and luncheons at the new hospital, use of information packets with photographs of and captions describing the new hospital units, elicitation of input from and education of family members to provide support for the move, as well as individualized counseling and support of patients by staff.