Significant predictors for readmission of the severely mentally ill to a provincial hospital: is the efficacy of community care explicit or implicit?

The aim of our study was to determine the factors pertaining to the seriously mentally ill patients who were forewarned of readmission to a provincial mental hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is well known that, compared to the psychiatric care delivery systems in Japan, Vancouver and its metropolitan area provide the seriously mentally ill with a much wider range of community mental health programs. Our sample was 161 first admission DSM-II schizophrenic patients to a provincial hospital, who had been followed for five years. A discriminant analysis showed that of the 11 predictive factors selected, such socio-cultural factors as living situations and country of birth were the most significant predictors.