Thursday, September 18, 2003

Mental health's revolving door (New Zealand)
New Zealand Herald story - "...The Auckland region has about 170 beds in four acute units based near Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere and Middlemore Hospitals. Because many people cannot obtain the community-based care they need when serious mental illness flares up, they become sicker and are admitted to an acute unit. The promoters of community care say this needless stress could be avoided if there were more community services. The Public Service Association has pushed for more "step-down" or "sub-acute" beds, which delegates say would reduce pressure on the acute units. To outside observers, Auckland's mental health services appear to have been in an almost perpetual crisis since the cost-cutting closure of Carrington Hospital in 1992 and even before. The concept of community care, implemented gradually since the 1970s but accelerated in the 1990s, remains controversial."