Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T06:00:59.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cumulated need for psychiatric service as shown in a community psychiatric project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Povl Munk-Jørgensen
Povl Munk-Jørgensen*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatric Demography, Risskov, Denmark
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr P. Munk-Jørgensen, Institute of Psychiatric Demography, Aarhus Psychiatric Hospital, DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

District psychiatric services often supplement intramural mental health programmes. They usually result in an increase in the number of referrals to the mental health facilities, which reflects a cumulative need for psychiatric examination and treatment in the population. A significant decrease in the annual first referral rates per 1000 inhabitants aged 15 years and above is apparent in an analysis of the trends in the Danish Samsø community psychiatric service from its inception in 1957 until 1982. The average annual rates were 19·4 in the first 5-year period, 10·0 in the second 5-year period, and 8·4 in the ‘steady state period’ from 1967 to 1982. The conclusion is, therefore, that the work load connected with the cumulative need for psychiatric examination and treatment should be terminated in approximately 10 years. A comparison of the two 5-year periods, 1957–61 and 1978–82, demonstrated a decrease in first referral rates in almost all diagnostic groups: this is significant among manic-depressive psychoses, neurotic states and unspecified mental disorders. The rates of no mental disorders and senile and arteriosclerotic psychoses were almost unchanged. In the 10-year age groups there was a decrease in first referral rates for all groups, except for the groups aged 75 years and above whose rates were unchanged. The concept of cumulative need for psychiatric examination and treatment is discussed in relation to the reports of various district psychiatric service programmes in different European countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , August 1985 , pp. 629 - 635
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bennett, D.H., Birley, J. L. T., Hailey, A. & Wing, J. K. (1972). Non-residential services for the mentally ill, 1964–1971. In Evaluating a Community Psychiatric Service (ed. Wing, J. K. and Hailey, A. H.), pp. 141–158. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Betænkning (1977). Den psykiatriske sygehusfunktion. Bet. nr. 826. Statens Trykningskontor.Google Scholar
Cullberg, J. & Stefansson, C.-G. (1981). Nacka-projektet 1974–1979. Spri: Stockholm.Google Scholar
Danmarks Statistik (1981). Statistisk tabelvœrk 1981: 1. befolkningen i de enkelte kommuner pr. 1. januar 1981. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. & Huxley, P. (1980). Mental Illness in the Community. Tavistock Publications: London.Google Scholar
Häfner, H. & Klug, J. (1982). The impact of an expanding community mental health service on patterns of bed usage: evaluation of a four-year period of implementation. Psychological Medicine 12, 177–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mosher, L. (1982). Italy's revolutionary mental health law: an assessment. American Journal of Psychiatry 139, 199–203.Google ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, J. (1976). The Samsø project from 1957 to 1974. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 54, 198–222.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J. (1980). Psykiatrisk speciallægepraksis (Psychiatric practice). Ugeskrift for Lœger 142, 1771–1778.Google ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, J. (1981). Patients from Samsø admitted to the Aarhus Psychiatric Hospital from 1852 to 1975. In The Samsø Project (ed. Nielsen, J., Nielsen, J. A., Kastrup, M. and Strömgren, E.), pp. 37–40. Acta Jutlandica LV, Medicine Series 23. Aarhus University: Aarhus.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J. & Nielsen, J. A. (1977). A census study of mental illness in Samsø. Psychological Medicine 7, 491–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, J., Juel-Nielsen, N. & Strömgren, E. (1965). A five-year survey of a psychiatric service in a geographically delimited rural population given easy access to this service. Comprehensive Psychiatry 6, 139–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, J., Biørn-Henriksen, T. & Nielsen, J. (1980). Psychiatric illness and use of psychotropic drugs in the geographically delimited population of Samsø, Denmark. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 62, Suppl. 285, 97–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, J., Nielsen, J. A., Kastrup, M. & Strömgren, E. (eds.) (1981). The Samsø Project. Acta Jutlandica LV, Medicine Series 23. Aarhus University: Aarhus.Google Scholar
Sørensen, A. & Strömgren, E. (1961). Frequency of depressive states within geographically delimited population groups. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 37, Suppl. 162, 62–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strømgren, E. (1968). Psychiatric illness in general practice. In Contributions to Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics (ed. Strömgren, E.), pp. 44–58. Acta Jutlandica XL, Medicine Series 4. Universitetsforlaget: Aarhus Munksgaard: Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Tansella, M., Meneghelli, G. & Siciliani, O. (1982). Implementing a community psychiatric service in South Verona under the New Italian Mental Health Act. Psychiatry and Social Science 2, 105–114.Google Scholar
Varvin, S. (1980). Aalborgprosjektet. Nordisk Psykiatrisk Tidsskrift 34, 472–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weeke, A. & Strömgren, E. (1978). Fifteen years later. A comparison of patients in Danish psychiatric institutions in 1957, 1962, 1967, and 1972. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 57, 129–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, J. K. & Fryers, T. (eds.) (1976). Statistics from the Camberwell and Salford Psychiatric Registers 1964–1974. MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, London, and Department of Community Medicine, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Wooff, K., Freeman, H. L. & Fryers, T. (1983). Psychiatric service use in Salford. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 588–597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1974). International Classification of Diseases (8th revision). WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar