Emergency Department Psychiatric Assessment for Adults Discharged With a Principal Diagnosis of Schizophrenia in Maryland Community Hospitals With and Without inpatient Psychiatric Units
Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: For centuries, people with mental disorders in the United States (U.S.) have faced healthcare service delivery challenges.As the number of individuals with mental disorders continues to increase, the New Freedom Commission and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have called for a restructuring of the U.S. healthcare system to meet the needs of this population.In the interim, the emergency department (ED) has become an important component of service delivery to individuals with mental disorders.As the number of individuals with mental disorders and no means to meet their healthcare needs continues to grow, costly ED use by this population also continues to rise.The American Psychiatric Association (APA) Practice Guideline for Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia recommends a psychiatric history and mental status examination be conducted for individuals who present to the ED with mental disorders.Understanding the frequency of psychiatric assessment in the ED v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Since the mid-18 th century, individuals with mental disorders 1 have faced service delivery challenges within the United States (U.S.) healthcare system.The first U.S.institutions constructed to provide mental health services were in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Williamsburg, Virginia.The origins of general medical/primary mental health services to accept and treat those with mental disorders can be traced back to 1753 at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia (Grob, 1994).The Eastern Lunatic Asylum in Williamsburg, Virginia, is where specialty mental health services originated in 1773, as the first statesupported mental institution in the U.S. (Dain, 1971).More recently, a movement to "deinstitutionalize" those with mental disorders began in the U.S. (Grob, 1991).While the goal of the movement was to free persons with mental disorders from the overcrowded, unsafe, and sometimes inhumane conditions of inpatient institutional settings, many of the results have proved less than positive (Dear & Wolch, 1987).Deinstitutionalization was intended to improve quality of life for those with mental disorders and their families by moving the care and 1 The definition of a 'mental disorder' can be found at: www.
Author: Patricia White
Institution: University of Pennsylvania
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1507394423