The closure of a long-stay psychiatric hospital: a longitudinal study of patients' behavior

This paper summarises longitudinal data based on repeat assessments of the behavioural functioning of 90 long-stay psychiatric patients. Data were gathered over a period of 4-5 years that spanned a hospital closure and the resettlement of patients in various alternative settings. Time-series analyses of individual data sets showed that resettlement led to no significant behavioural change in the majority of patients. However, some significant behavioural improvements were evidenced for approximately 20% of the group, while behavioural deterioration occurred in approximately 12%. Supplementary findings showed that following resettlement the quality of care provided significantly improved in many respects. However, access to social, recreational or vocational activities was reduced. In addition, the level of physical health symptomatology was shown to increase for this group of patients.