1. Demographic, social and clinical characteristics of the sample

Abstract

The exploratory survey to be described in this series of papers was designed in order to make a preliminary estimate of the service needs of people in prolonged contact with high dependence community services in Camberwell, including a spell in day or residential care. Patients who had been resident in hospital for a year or more were excluded, but the sampling scheme was otherwise directed towards generating a group who would formerly have been at high risk of staying in hospital for a prolonged period.