[Complementing and replacing the clinic sensibly--on the management, effectiveness and indications for a...

The complementary psychiatric (home) area is a relatively new branch of institutional psychiatry, the therapeutic evaluation and integration of which into everyday psychiatric thinking and acting has not yet become a reality. The evaluative study presented here covered 53 inmates and concerned their everyday life, the success of the treatment, predictors and perspectives. A gradual change in the means and aims of psychiatric rehabilitation seems to be materializing: the (re-)integration of the subject into his family of origin or into the psychosocial network will probably become more important than just reinstating the patient into his original place and kind of work. For the future it appears desirable that the inmates and the equipment are financially secured, that the entire setup is integrated into the system of psychiatric institutions, and that the method can be applied to further groups of patients.