Psychiatric rehabilitation--does it work? A three year retrospective survey.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a rehabilitation unit in returning psychiatric patients to community settings, a survey was undertaken of all patients referred to the rehabilitation unit at Holywell Hospital (Bush House) from 1985 to 1987. The location of 96 patients at the end of 1987 was recorded; 38 were living in the community and 38 had either failed to make this transition or had attempted a community placement but were back in hospital. Comparison of these two sub-groups showed those living successfully in the community to be older and to have had fewer hospital admissions, although the total number of years in hospital was similar. A number of other clinical findings have been helpful in planning future services and in modifying rehabilitation programmes at this unit. The deficiencies of this quantitative evaluation process were identified and there is a need for further qualitative investigations.