In defence of the depot clinic

Abstract

The depot clinic has long been part of the traditional British psychiatric service. With moves towards care in the community many of the traditional, particularly hospital based, methods of service delivery are becoming unfashionable. The depot clinic has been criticised (Beveridge, 1987) for being out of date, not geared to the needs of the patient, inaccessible and unable to provide personalised care, especially regarding the family factors recognised to be important in the management of chronic psychosis, and is portrayed as a facility designed for the convenience of the staff not the patient. This has led to suggestions for alternative methods of administering treatment to these patients, e.g. at home, from GP, health centre based.