Does Community Care Reduce the Need for Psychiatric Beds for Schizophrenic Patients?

This article answers “Yes” to the title question but stresses that patients must receive concurrent community care services on a sufficient quality level. Schizophrenia in all phases must be treated as a disease & not a social problem. For schizophrenia the critical low number of institution beds, hospital & nursing homes, seems to be 0.07% of the general population. The results of community care vs hospital care, side effects of community care, & laypeople’s attitudes are discussed. (36 Refs.)