Mental hospitals ‘should close by 2010’
The report shows the number of people living in psychiatric units and hospitals has fallen by 83% in the past 43 years. There were 19,801 people in mental hospitals in 1963, compared to just 3,389 this year.
A considerable increase in the percentage of patients in general hospital units over the last 25 years, rising from 3% in 1981 to 23% in 2006, discharges and death, along with an increase in the development of community care are responsible for the dramatic falloff.
