Psychiatric day-care in Birmingham.

The first psychiatric day-hospital in the United Kingdom was established in 1946 through the initiative of Bierer. This innovation was received with some scepticism (Bierer, 1955) and five years passed before a second day-hospital was created. Interest gradually increased, and by 1959 there were at least 38 psychiatric day-hospitals (Farndale, 1961). In the early sixties the movement received an impetus from the drive to reduce the number of in-patient beds in mental hospitals, and by 1966 the number of dayhospitals had increased to 65. In recent years a growing emphasis on community psychiatry has stimulated clinicians and administrators to take an interest in day-patient care. Large numbers of patients throughout the country are currently enrolled as day-patients. It is therefore clearly important to examine the functioning of existing psychiatric day-patient services. Few systematic studies have been carried out so far. The aim of the present study was to examine the functioning of the seven day-patient services in the City of Birmingham. The procedure was to identify the population of patients attending these facilities, to examine the social and psychiatric characteristics of these patients, and to follow their progress in the day-hospital over a 12-month period. This paper presents the findings of the first stages of the enquiry. The day-hospital facilities are described; the demographic and diagnostic characteristics and previous psychiatric histories of the patients are presented.