Recent Critical Trends in Mental Hospital Admissions in the Oxford Region

Abstract

The statistics on mental hospitals published by the Ministry of Health (1957) show that the average length of stay for admissions to mental hospitals decreased in the period 1952–1956. According to the Registrar-General's Mental Health Supplement (1961) there was an average saving, between 1951 and 1958, of sixteen days for men and thirteen days for women, among patients staying less than one year. But these figures for stay only relate to the patients discharged each year, irrespective of the year of their admission, and furthermore we do not know what happens to particular groups such, for example, as schizophrenics. Although remarkable changes are occurring at the present time, study of them is hampered by lack of appropriate and up-to-date information.