The treatment of involuntary patients in the general hospital psychiatric unit.

In response to pressure to assume more responsibility for chronic patients, many general hospitals have asserted that they should limit care to those suitable for voluntary treatment on an open ward. This assertion appears to be based primarily on political and symbolic arguments. The limitation of admission to voluntary patients would serve to exclude many acutely psychotic patients with excellent prognosis best treated in a general hospital. The locked ward appears to offer the maximum flexibility in dealing with illnesses which in varying degrees affect the individual's judgment and impulsivity. The limitation of psychiatric units to voluntary patients in open wards would preclude psychiatry from joining in the mission of the general hospital - the best possible care for the community it serves.