Article Sidebar
Published:
Nov 3, 2015Article Details
http://www.sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/pages/view/policies#part_4
Copyright
The author(s) retain copyright on work published by AOSIS unless specified otherwise.
Licensing and publishing rights
Author(s) of work published by AOSIS are required to grant AOSIS the unlimited rights to publish the definitive work in any format, language and medium, for any lawful purpose.
AOSIS requires journal authors to publish their work in open access under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
Read more here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the published article(s), provided attribution is given to the applicable journal with details of the original publication, as set out in the official citation of the article published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the article on the authors’ or their institution’s websites or in institutional repositories.
Previously published work may have been published under a different licence. We advise the community that if they would like to reuse the work to consult the applicable licence at article level.
Main Article Content
A decentralised model of psychiatric care: Profile, length of stay and outcome of mental healthcare users admitted to a district-level public hospital in the Western Cape
Abstract
Background. There is a lack of studies assessing the profile and outcome of psychiatric patients at entry-level public hospitals that are prescribed by the Mental Health Care Act to provide a decentralised model of psychiatric care.
Objective. To assess the demographic and clinical profile as well as length of stay and outcomes of mental healthcare users admitted to a district-level public hospital in the Western Cape.
Method. Demographic data, clinical diagnosis, length of stay, referral profile and outcomes of patients (N=487) admitted to Helderberg Hospital during the period 1 January 2011 - 31 December 2011 were collected.
Results. Psychotic disorders were the most prevalent (n=287, 59%) diagnoses, while 228 (47%) of admission episodes had comorbid/ secondary diagnoses. Substance use disorders were present in 184 (38%) of admission episodes, 37 (57%) of readmissions and 19 (61%) of abscondments. Most admission episodes (n=372, 76%) were discharged without referral to specialist/tertiary care.
Conclusion. Methamphetamine use places a significant burden on the provision of mental healthcare services at entry-level care. Recommendations for improving service delivery at this district-level public hospital are provided.
