Outcome after discharge from a psychiatric hospital. A retrospective study evaluating demographic factors as predictors of risk of readmission.

The deinstitutionalization process has confronted psychiatry with the challenge of maintaining patients in the community. This problem is reflected in the ever-increasing rates of readmission to psychiatric hospitals. The ability to predict patients at risk of readmission would aid in improving services by enabling attention to be focused on vulnerable groups. Past psychiatric history has been shown to be the most consistent predictor of readmission. This study verifies this finding among coloured patients discharged from Valkenberg Hospital, Cape Town.