Psychiatric service use in Salford. A comparison of point-prevalence ratios 1968 and 1978.

Using data from the Salford Psychiatric Case Register, point-prevalence patterns of service use in Salford County Borough are compared for 1968 and 1978 with respect to type of care, age and diagnosis. In a declining population, overall point-prevalence ratios increased from 9.52 to 13.44/1,000 adults, due almost entirely to two extensive new services--"injection-only" nurse contact with out-patients, and community psychiatric nurse domiciliary contact. Their development has apparently hardly affected use of other services. The increase was similar in most age-groups and in the predominating diagnostic groups (schizophrenia and depression). Prevalence ratios for long-stay patients barely changed in total, and increased for those accumulated in a ten-year period, but there was an upward shift in age. Day care increased, but its contribution remained relatively small. The diagnostic distribution of social work contact changed, as community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) assumed domiciliary care of people with schizophrenia.