Determinants of placement outcome in the Foster Community Project.

The Foster Community Project was established to reintegrate chronic psychiatric patients into the community through the combined efforts of the hospital staff, the patients and the citizens of two rural Missouri towns. Data collected over a seven year period was analyzed in order to determine which factors were associated with successful community adjustment following long term hospitalization. Results indicated that length of premorbid functioning, sex, and level of social functioning differentiated successful from unsuccessful participants. Additionally, Foster Community patients were older and had generally been hospitalized longer than patients who did not complete the program. Implications for future research and rehabilitation plans are given.

Profile of 1,300 admissions to Central Neuropsychiatric Hospital Association Collaborative Research Hospitals.

A collaborative effort to describe patients at admission led to the development of the Central Data Set, a 32-item profile of demographic and clinical variables which was used to sample 1,302 admissions across 10 hospitals in 1982. Weighted estimates indicated that this group of adult patients admitted to CNPHA-member hospitals were younger than those admitted to other private psychiatric hospitals, almost half had more than one previous psychiatric hospitalization, about one-fourth had made a previous suicide attempt, and two-thirds had engaged in psychotherapy or counseling prior to his admission. Most common diagnoses at admission were major affective disorders (36%), personality disorders (36%), substance abuse (30%), schizophrenic disorders (13%), and depressive neuroses (13%).