Suicide within 12 months of contact with mental health services: national clinical survey. (1/104)

OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical circumstances in which psychiatric patients commit suicide. DESIGN: National clinical survey. SETTING: England and Wales. SUBJECTS: A two year sample of people who had committed suicide, in particular those who had been in contact with mental health services in the 12 months before death. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of suicides in people who had had recent contact with mental health services; proportion of suicides in inpatients; proportion of people committing suicide and timing of suicide within three months of hospital discharge; proportion receiving high priority under the care programme approach; proportion who were recently non-compliant and not attending. RESULTS: 10 040 suicides were notified to the study between April 1996 and March 1998, of whom 2370 (24%; 95% confidence interval 23% to 24%) had had contact with mental health services in the year before death. Data were obtained on 2177, a response rate of 92%. In general these subjects had broad social and clinical needs. Alcohol and drug misuse were common. 358 (16%; 15% to 18%) were psychiatric inpatients at the time of death, 21% (17% to 25%) of whom were under special observation. Difficulties in observing patients because of ward design and nursing shortages were both reported in around a quarter of inpatient suicides. 519 (24%; 22% to 26%) suicides occurred within three months of hospital discharge, the highest number occurring in the first week after discharge. 914 (43%; 40% to 44%) were in the highest priority category for community care. 488 (26% excluding people whose compliance was unknown; 24% to 28%) were non-compliant with drug treatment while 486 (28%; 26% to 30%) community patients had lost contact with services. Most people who committed suicide were thought to have been at no or low immediate risk at the final service contact. Mental health teams believed suicide could have been prevented in 423 (22%; 20% to 24%) cases. CONCLUSIONS: Several suicide prevention measures in mental health services are implied by these findings, including measures to improve compliance and prevent loss of contact with services. Inpatient facilities should remove structural difficulties in observing patients and fixtures that can be used in hanging. Prevention of suicide after discharge may require earlier follow up in the community. Better suicide prevention in psychiatric patients is likely to need measures to improve the safety of mental health services as a whole, rather than specific measures for people known to be at high risk.  (+info)

Outcome of long stay psychiatric patients resettled in the community: prospective cohort study. (2/104)

OBJECTIVE: To examine the outcome of a population of long stay psychiatric patients resettled in the community. DESIGN: Prospective study with 5 year follow up. SETTING: Over 140 residential settings in north London. SUBJECTS: 670 long stay patients from two London hospitals (Friern and Claybury) discharged to the community from 1985 to 1993. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Continuity and quality of residential care, readmission to hospital, mortality, crime, and vagrancy. RESULTS: Of the 523 patients who survived the 5 year follow up period, 469 (89.6%) were living in the community by the end of follow up, 310 (59.2%) in their original community placement. A third (210) of all patients were readmitted at least once. Crime and homelessness presented few problems. Standardised mortality ratios for the group were comparable with those reported for similar populations. CONCLUSIONS: When carefully planned and adequately resourced, community care for long stay psychiatric patients is beneficial to most individuals and has minimal detrimental effects on society.  (+info)

Deinstitutionalization and schizophrenia in Finland II: discharged patients and their psychosocial functioning. (3/104)

Three representative cohorts of schizophrenia patients deinstitutionalized from psychiatric hospitals in 1982, 1986, and 1990 were followed up for 3 years in Finland. Patients of the last cohort were older, more disturbed, and had been ill for a longer time than those discharged at the beginning of the 1980s. Despite this, the mortality of patients deinstitutionalized in 1990 did not increase, and their psychosocial functioning seemed to become even better during the 3-year follow-up period compared with those deinstitutionalized during the previous decade. Patients who had been discharged in 1990 were more often living alone than those discharged in the 1980s. Homelessness was rare throughout the study period. In general, patients were more satisfied with their life situation at follow-up compared with that on discharge. Furthermore, most patients were satisfied with their treatment situation. Altogether, the psychiatric care system seemed to be able to meet schizophrenia patients' need for care fairly well during the rapid deinstitutionalization process in Finland. More attention, however, should be paid to the loneliness and social withdrawal of discharged patients as well as to other disabilities in their social functioning.  (+info)

Domiciliary occupational therapy for patients with stroke discharged from hospital: randomised controlled trial. (4/104)

OBJECTIVE: To establish if a brief programme of domiciliary occupational therapy could improve the recovery of patients with stroke discharged from hospital. DESIGN: Single blind randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Two hospital sites within a UK teaching hospital. SUBJECTS: 138 patients with stroke with a definite plan for discharge home from hospital. INTERVENTION: Six week domiciliary occupational therapy or routine follow up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Nottingham extended activities of daily living score and "global outcome" (deterioration according to the Barthel activities of daily living index, or death). RESULTS: By eight weeks the mean Nottingham extended activities of daily living score in the intervention group was 4.8 points (95% confidence interval -0.5 to 10.0, P=0.08) greater than that of the control group. Overall, 16 (24%) intervention patients had a poor global outcome compared with 30 (42%) control patients (odds ratio 0.43, 0.21 to 0.89, P=0.02). These patterns persisted at six months but were not statistically significant. Patients in the intervention group were more likely to report satisfaction with a range of aspects of services. CONCLUSION: The functional outcome and satisfaction of patients with stroke can be improved by a brief occupational therapy programme carried out in the patient's home immediately after discharge. Major benefits may not, however, be sustained.  (+info)

Medicaid program; home and community-based services. Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), HHS. Final rule with comment period. (5/104)

This final rule with comment period expands State flexibility in providing prevocational, educational, and supported employment services under the Medicaid home and community-based services waiver provisions currently found in section 1915(c) of the Social Security Act (the Act); and incorporates the self-implementing provisions of section 4743 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 that amends section 1915(c)(5) of the Act to delete the requirements that an individual have prior institutionalization in a nursing facility or intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded before becoming eligible for the expanded habilitation services. In addition, we are making a number of technical changes to update or correct the regulations.  (+info)

Cause-specific mortality in psychiatric patients after deinstitutionalisation. (6/104)

BACKGROUND: Since the late 1970s, the psychiatric service system in Norway has been changed gradually according to the principles of deinstitutionalisation. AIMS: To document the mortality of psychiatric patients in a deinstitutionalised service system. METHODS: The case register of a psychiatric hospital covering the period 1980-1992 was linked to the Central Register of Deaths. Age-adjusted death rates and standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed. RESULTS: Patients with organic psychiatric disorders had significantly higher mortality regardless of cause of death. SMRs ranged from 0.9 for death by cancer in women to 36.3 for suicide in men. For unnatural death, SMRs were highest in the first year after discharge. Compared to the periods 1950-1962 and 1963-1974, there has been an increase in SMRs for cardiovascular death and suicide in both genders. CONCLUSIONS: Deinstitutionalisation seems to have had as its cost a relative rise both in cardiovascular death and unnatural deaths for both genders, but most pronounced in men.  (+info)

Oxygen therapy for infants with chronic lung disease. (7/104)

Supplemental oxygen is a safe and effective treatment for infants with established chronic lung disease who are not at risk of further progression of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Oxygen saturations of < 92% should be avoided and a target range of at least 94-96% aimed for. The saturation target range for very preterm infants at risk of developing ROP is more controversial, but the therapeutic index is probably considerably narrower.  (+info)

Mental disorder and perceived threat to the public: people who do not return to community living. (8/104)

BACKGROUND: In the UK, people with mental disorder thought to pose a high risk of harm to others are usually put in a high-security (special) hospital. Little is known about what happens after that. AIMS: To test a hypothesis that, under current services and laws (from the mid-1980s), no one leaving high-security hospitals remains indefinitely institutionalised. METHOD: The special hospitals' case register was used for case ascertainment and admission data; post-discharge data were collected from multiple sources on patients discharged in 1984 (census date 31.12.1995). RESULTS: In this discharge cohort (n=223), 36 (17%) did not return to the community: 17 died in special hospital and 19 continuously lived in other institutions until death or the census date. Over two-thirds of these had mental illness, were older on admission and had lived longer in special hospital than their better-rehabilitated peers. Offending history was irrelevant to this. Most post-discharge institution time was in open psychiatric hospital, or back in special hospital, not in medium secure units or prison. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis was not sustained, but fewer people never reached the community than before the mid-1980s. Atypical antipsychotics might reduce this number. We found no justification for a new tier of long-term medium secure units.  (+info)