Journal Article

Deinstitutionalised patients, homelessness and imprisonment: Systematic review

Csémy, Ladislav, Höschl, Cyril, Winkler, Petr, Janousková, Miroslava, McCrone, Paul, Barrett, Barbara

2016

Overview

Reports linking the deinstitutionalisation of psychiatric care with homelessness and imprisonment have been published widely. To identify cohort studies that followed up or traced back long-term psychiatric hospital residents who had been discharged as a consequence of deinstitutionalisation. A broad search strategy was used and 9435 titles and abstracts were screened, 416 full articles reviewed and 171 articles from cohort studies of deinstitutionalised patients were examined in detail. Twenty-three studies of unique populations assessed homelessness and imprisonment among patients discharged from long-term care. Homelessness and imprisonment occurred sporadically; in the majority of studies no single case of homelessness or imprisonment was reported. Our results contradict the findings of ecological studies which indicated a strong correlation between the decreasing number of psychiatric beds and an increasing number of people with mental health problems who were homeless or in prison.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Cohort analysis / Deinstitutionalization / Deinstitutionalization - statistics & numerical data / Dementia / Discharge / Ecological studies / Health care policy / Health problems / Homeless people / Humans / Hypotheses / Ill-Housed Persons - statistics & numerical data / Imprisonment / Intellectual disabilities / Long term health care / Mental disorders / Mental health / Mental health care / Mental health services / Patients / Persons with Psychiatric Disorders - statistics & numerical data / Physicians / Population studies / Prisoners - statistics & numerical data / Prisons / Psychiatry / Reforms / Resident physicians / Review Articles / Systematic review