Intensive inpatient treatment of young adult chronic patients.

Young adults with chronic mental disorders have become a major concern among mental health professionals during the past decade. Many of these patients require frequent hospitalizations, are noncompliant with treatment, experience behavioral crises that threaten themselves or others, abuse drugs and alcohol, and alienate their families and support systems. The authors describe an intensive inpatient program for young adult chronic patients who have repeatedly failed to respond to community-based and standard state hospital care and appear to need extended institutional care. The program, which integrates psychiatric and rehabilitation strategies, has succeeded in increasing the amount of time these patients remain in the community. Although the goal for such patients remains a community-based treatment program, the value of an extended period of active inpatient treatment for some patients may be overlooked in current planning for them.