Discharged patients and prognoses of caregivers after two years - Part III of the Berlin deinstitutionalisation study

Abstract

In a two-year follow-up we report on discharges in a cohort of 422 middle-term and long-term inpatients and prognoses of their psychiatrists and psychologists concerning time of discharge and location, after 50% long-term patients with a present stay of more than two years and 82% of middle-term patients (stay: 6-24 months) had been discharged. More than one-third of the long-term patients could be placed in sheltered accommodation, but 42% are still referred to nursing homes. All together 68% are still in institutional settings--either as inpatients or in nursing homes. Prognoses were not very reliable concerning the time of discharge but substantial with regard to placement in sheltered accommodation. This can be interpreted as a result of successful co-operation between inpatient and community-based services.