After the Asylums

As a result of government policy in the UK, some 100,000 people have left psychiatric hospitals in the last 30 years, but community places have only been provided for 15,000. The author examines the results and investigates how this situation can be improved.

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Though often well intended, the transfer of the mentally ill from psychiatric hospitals to the community has provoked a tragedy. As a result of government policy, some 100,000 people have left psychiatric hospitals in the last 30 years, but community places have only been provided for 15,000. For most of the remaining "care in the community" has meant no care at all. Professor Elaine Murphy, a leading figure in the planning of mental health care in Britain, argues that appalling mismanagement and penny-pinching has resulted in the failure of the community care policy. This book outlines the mistakes of the last 30 years and sets an agenda for correct planning and provision in the future. Professor Murphy argues that there will always be a need for some residential hospital places for chronic patients but that care in the community can succeed for the majority of the mentally ill, provided certain principles and guidelines are followed. By the author of "Dementia and Mental Illness in the Elderly".