The exodus of long-stay psychiatric patients.

Increasing criticism is being made of the policy of discharging long-stay psychiatric patients to the community. A study of such ex-patients who had left Callan Park Hospital was undertaken to assess this policy in New South Wales. The majority were unemployed pensioners, living in convalescent homes and boarding houses, who stated that they were happier than when living in Callan Park Hospital. It would appear that one type of institution has been substituted for another, and that greater responsibility for the care and rehabilitation of such ex-patients needs to be offered.