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  • Properly planned de-institutionalisation for mental illness maintained most in community living with enhanced quality of life

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Qualitative
Properly planned de-institutionalisation for mental illness maintained most in community living with enhanced quality of life

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.4.2.63

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    Newton L, Rosen A, Tennant C, et al.Deinstitutionalisation for long-term mental illness: an ethnographic study.Aust N Z J Psychiatry2000 Jun;34:484–90OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science

    QUESTION: What effects does de-institutionalisation have on the lives of residents who were admitted to hospital because of long term mental illness?

    Design

    Ethnography.

    Setting

    Northern Sydney Area Health Service, Australia.

    Patients

    47 hospital residents (hospitalised from 2-43 y) transferred to the community to stay in residential facilities in middle to upper class areas.

    Methods

    Data were collected using participant observational fieldwork, open ended and semistructured interviews, life history taking and perusal of written records. Fieldwork occurred on a daily basis over a 2.5 year period, approximately 8 months before hospital discharge and then 2 years after discharge. Data collection comprised daily field note taking, audiotaped interviews, and summaries of case records. Ethnographic themes were generated from observations occurring during the study.

    Main findings

    Initially residents had to acquire new functional living skills …

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    Footnotes

    • Sources of funding: Australian Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services—Research and Development Advisory Committee and the Northern Sydney Area Health Services.

    • For correspondence: Professor C Tennant, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Royal North Shore Hospital, Block 4, Level 5, St Leonards, New South Wales 2065, Australia. Fax +61 2 9926 7730.