[Comparative study of the operation of two day's Hospitals in Athens]

The present paper describes the preparation for the commencement of services by the University Mental Health Research Institute (UMHRI) Day Hospital and Eginition Day Hospital whose operation (in 1977) signifies the beginning of the Psychiatric Reform in our country. The two units' functional characteristics and the type of offered services are mentioned. Psychotherapeutic, biological and sociotherapeutic approaches are practiced on a daily basis within a framework of Therapeutic Community services. Moreover, relations, similarities and differences among the two day hospitals are pointed out. Special mention is given to the problems and difficulties that these two units faced upon their commencement, which took place at different time periods, set 32 years apart. The lack of legislative framework with regards to the operation of Day Hospitals, the bureaucratic obstacles and the skepticism towards the new treatment approach of patients, were the basic obstacles that had to be overcome in order for the first Day Hospital to become operational in 1977. Licensing and funding were the main obstacles that the creation of UMHRI's Day Hospital faced, although these two units had already been established. Emphasis was placed on the staff's training, which mainly consisted of young professionals and at the social environment's and all those services' (health-care, community etc) attitude, in the specific catchment area (6th Mental Health Sector). The study of patients' characteristics hospitalized in Eginition's Day Hospital throughout its first year of operation (1977-1978) and of patients hospitalized at UMHRI's Day Hospital, also at its first year of operation (2009-2010), showed, among other things, that in both cases, the number of hospitalized male patients is larger than the number of female patients. This constitutes an exception compared to other countries, whereby female patients outnumber male patients in Day Hospitals. Especially at UMHRI's Day Hospital, the number of men is twice the number of women and three times the number of women in the subgroup of patients with schizophrenia. In addition, at Eginition Day Hospital, the men- women ratio is 3:2 in the total number of hospitalized patients and 2:1 in the schizophrenia subgroup. The comparison between the hospitalized patients in Eginition Day Ηospital and UMHRI. Day Hospital brought out the following differences: inpatients at UMHRI's day Hospital were more often older, (x²= 29.52, p=0.0001), unemployed (x²=14.65, p=0.0001) and used public means of transportation more rarely (x²=7.38, p=0.005). No other differences were found in the rest of the sociodemographic variables such as education, marital status, insurance agency, living conditions, traveling time to the day Hospital, referral source, diagnosis of schizophrenia, past hospitalizations. To conclude, it is worth mentioning that the Day Hospital is in a position to treat patients with active psychotic symptomatology, preventing thus their hospitalization on a 24 hour basis.