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Trends in the use of the Italian Mental Health Act, 1979–1997

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Giuseppe Guaiana  and
Corrado Barbui
Giuseppe Guaiana*
Affiliation:
The University of Hull, Hertford Building. Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Corrado Barbui
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry, University of Verona, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email addresses:g.guaiana@hull.ac.uk
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Abstract

Italian statistics on psychiatric bed availability, voluntary and compulsory admissions were examined from 1979 to 1997. Although the number of psychiatric beds dropped by 62.5%, the absolute number of compulsory admissions has remained substantially stable. The proportion of all admissions that were compulsory decreased from 17.1% to 11%. This study shows that a shift to community care was not associated with an increase in compulsory admissions in Italy.

Keywords

Compulsory admissionsMental health actCommunity psychiatry
Type
Rapid communication
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 19 , Issue 7 , November 2004 , pp. 444 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2004

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