Comprehensive community care without long stay beds in mental hospitals: trends from an Italian good practice area.

Despite the scientific evidence that long stays in mental hospitals are clinically deleterious, inhumane and probably not cost-effective, this practice still occurs in most Western countries. The continued use of long stay beds in mental hospitals is a policy decided by many authorities, including psychiatrists. Alternatives to the mental hospital exist and may limit the use of hospital beds through comprehensive community care that also includes proper residential provisions. Alternatives may also decrease, but not impede the tendency to chronicity in some patients, who become long term users of these community services. Italy passed a law in 1978 prohibiting admissions to mental hospitals and encouraging the development of community care. In South Verona, Italy, the policy has been properly implemented and evaluated. Data from the case register and intensive studies of a cohort of patients will be used to show that long stay hospitalization can be discontinued while meeting the needs of the most severely handicapped patients. Implications of South Verona's experience for future training of psychiatrists will also be discussed.