Psychiatry takes to the streets: the New York City initiative for the homeless mentally ill.
The authors describe New York City's program to remove seriously mentally ill homeless people from the streets to a public hospital. They report on the 298 patients hospitalized during the first year of this program. Most of the patients were male (66%), single (77%), and from outside of New York City (79%) and claimed a history of previous psychiatric hospitalization (92%) and that they had been homeless for more than 1 year (66%). Most of the patients suffered from schizophrenia (80%) and had additional medical diagnoses (73%). Follow-up contact with the patients 2 years after initiation of the program revealed that 55% of the patients either were living in a community setting or were under institutional care.
Marcos
L R
LR
New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, New York University School of Medicine, NY 10013.
Cohen
N L
NL
Nardacci
D
D
Brittain
J
J
D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006291:Health Policy; D006302:Health Services Research; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000523:psychology*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D009519:New York City; D015397:Program Evaluation