Prediction of the burden of released mental patients

Abstract

The burden of the patient to his family and the community is a major factor influencing the success of community care of a psychiatric patient. The hospital staff should he able to forsee it and take it into consideration in planning the aftercare of the psychiatric patient. Based on a sample of 174 patients released from a state hospital and followed for 6 months, a study of the predictive ability of various health professionals with respect to the financial burden and psychological burden of the patient to the family and two related aspects of his community life — family's welcome, and patient's work capacity — was performed. Although the professionals are doing a “good job” in predicting family welcome, the results are less encouraging for the other variables considered. With scattered exceptions, interdisciplinary differences were not detected .