A comparison of intensive psychiatric services for children and adolescents: cost of day treatment versus hospitalization.

Proponents of day treatment for children and adolescents assert that this mode of intervention is a viable alternative to hospitalization based on both treatment and cost effectiveness. Preliminary studies on treatment effectiveness are beginning to appear in the literature. This paper focuses on the relative cost difference of treating children and adolescents in a day-treatment program vs three inpatient-hospital settings. The study finds that the populations in the two settings are similar with regard to demographic and diagnostic characteristics and that day treatment is significantly less costly on a daily basis. A conservative conclusion, based on the findings reported, is that over the course of treatment partial hospitalization is equal or less costly than hospitalization. The authors conclude that further research exploring both treatment efficacy and cost effectiveness is in order to define what role day treatment should serve in the continuum of mental health-care services for children and adults.