title: Trends in American mental health.
abstract: Using the data collected by Hollingshead and Redlich in 1950 and their own recent data, the authors describe trends in the mental health field over a 25-year period. They found a marked increase in admissions and readmissions to inpatient facilities and a significant decrease in the average length of stay; a considerable increase in outpatient treatment services; a shift in major diagnostic categories from schizophrenia to alcoholism; an unequal allocation of services to young versus elderly patients; discharge of many chronic patients to nursing homes; the increased involvement of psychiatrists in administrative work and decreased time spent in direct patient care; and an increase in third-party insurance as a source of patient fees.
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D006760:Hospitalization; D006777:Hospitals, Proprietary; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D007358:Insurance, Psychiatric; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000639:trends*; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D011570:Psychiatry; D014481:United States