Alternatives to hospital-based mental health care.

With the reduction of mental health beds, new services are evolving to offer 24-hour intensive care in the community for those who would otherwise have been admitted. This paper describes the evaluation of the pilot community treatment team (CTT) in Cornwall over a two-year period. The findings suggested that a new client group gained access to the mental health services for the first time. The study identified the difficulties involved and subsequent failure in effecting a filtering mechanism to target those seriously mentally ill who are historically the most frequent users of the mental health services. The study also indicated the need to ensure continuity of care with other long-term community mental health teams.