A follow-up of 'new' long-stay patients in Camberwell, 1977--82

Since 1977 there have been two major developments in the provision of services for the 'new' long-stay in Camberwell - a hospital-hostel and an associated supervised group-home. This paper looks at the impact of these services over a 5-year period on a group of patients who fulfilled the 'new' long-stay criteria at the end of 1977. Both services appear to be extremely successful in containing such disabled patients. The results suggest that some improvements in patients' handicaps can be achieved and that some patients can be discharged with intensive psychiatric support. Excluding those patients in Special Hospitals, only one person was discharged to and has remained in unsupervised accommodation within the 5-year period.