[The Strandet Ill: Long-Term-Inpatients in Psychiatric Hospitals and Departments]

In contrast to official mental health policy, psychiatric clinics accomodate long-term patients.

To quantify this problem.

Cross-sectional assessment of the number of long-term patients in psychiatric clinics in Lower Saxony.

13 clinics of adult psychiatry report 60 long-term patients and one clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry reports 2 patients. Median duration of stay 9.5, maximum 215 months. Reasons for long-term hospitalisation include patients' challenging behaviour and, consequently, difficulties to find an accommodating long-term facility.

Housing willing to accommodate mentally ill persons with challenging behaviour is lacking, as well as local responsibility for the placement of these persons. Systematic transfer management from hospital to residential homes does not exist.