Psychiatric hospitalization and community-based program attendance.

The psychiatric rehabilitation model of community-based treatment programs for chronic psychiatric patients advocates the teaching of community living skills. Learning these skills requires program attendance, and there is some evidence that consistent attenders are less likely to be hospitalized. This study describes a psychiatric rehabilitation program that resulted in a decrease in number of subsequent psychiatric hospitalizations. However, this decrease was unrelated to program attendance; the number of hospitalizations in the year prior to enrollment was by far the best predictor of hospitalization. Changes in perception of the patient's support network by persons making hospitalization decisions was offered as one possible explanation for the effectiveness of some community-based programs.