The Development and Function of a Comprehensive Psychiatric Service in the Moose Jaw Union Hospital: (A Five-Year Study).

IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHIATRIC SERVICE IN A GENERAL HOSPITAL, TWO FACTORS ARE OF PRIME IMPORTANCE: (1) the integration of psychiatry with general medicine and (2) the therapeutic milieu established by the psychiatric staff. The application of these principles and the results obtained over a five-year period at the Psychiatric Department of the Moose Jaw Union Hospital are presented. Over that period of time, 1220 patients were admitted to the psychiatric ward and it was necessary to send only 80 patients of this total to a mental hospital. In the same period of time, 3194 outpatients were also treated. It is felt that a community-oriented psychiatric department in a general hospital can deal adequately with most types of psychiatric disabilities.