[Ambulatory management of the psychiatrically disturbed elderly--a comparative empirical study of 2 health care regions].

Gerontopsychiatric centres are functional settings which provide mainly out-patient care for mentally ill elderly persons. The centres were established in order to transfer the care of mentally ill elderly people from in-patient to out-patient care. This study examines to which extent this goal can be reached and where the limits of this transfer are. Two regions, the city of Bielefeld without gerontopsychiatric centre and the Gütersloh district with such a centre, were compared. It was shown that a transfer from intramural to extramural care was successfully accomplished by gerontopsychiatric centres. The transfer is scarcely limited by kind and severity of the disorder. Often an informal network is necessary for an out out-patient or partially out-patient care. But also with weak networks out-patient care is possible if there is a good-functioning formal network. Gerontopsychiatric centres constitute a central structural element in community-oriented care of the mentally ill elderly. They can help to realize the goal of a self-determinant and independent life.