Acute psychiatric care is under increasing pressure

Although community services have expanded, acute psychiatric inpatient care remains an essential part of mental health care. High levels of bed occupancy have been reported before and are confirmed by Ford et al (p 1279) in their report of a national survey of 119 acute units in England and Wales undertaken by the Mental Health Act Commission. To add to the difficulties of bed occupancies of 99%, nearly a third of nursing staff, rising to half in London, may be employed on a casual basis. The physical environment for female patients may not always be safeonly a third had the use of women-only areas.


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

One day survey by the Mental Health Act Commission of acute adult psychiatric inpatient wards in England and Wales

Richard Ford, Graham Durcan, Lesley Warner, Pollyanna Hardy, and Matt Muijen
BMJ 1998 317: 1279-1283. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]