The effects of deinstitutionalization on general hospital psychiatry.

As deinstitutionalization has proceeded, it has left in its wake a variety of basic changes in patterns of service delivery to chronic mental patients. Although all components of the psychiatric service system have been affected by the diminishing utilization of state mental hospitals, changes are perhaps most marked in the psychiatric services of general hospitals. The effects of deinstitutionalization on general hospital psychiatry are examined, and some future implications are discussed.