Home care for the mentally ill in Taiwan: a public health model

In 1985 the nursing staff at the Provincial Institute of Health, Taipei, Taiwan, began to make follow-up visits to patients discharged from three psychiatric hospitals, brought about by the Institute's concern about the psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse of these patients. Previously, chronically ill psychiatric patients received little community follow-up by public health nurses. The result was a model follow-up programme developed by the nursing staff that could be used in other public health stations throughout the country; a manual providing intervention examples and an evaluation programme. Below, how the model works and a survey of mental illness in Taiwan.