A new "abandonatti" of geographically mobile patients are adding
huge amounts to the mental health funding bill in London, according
to a new study.
The capital-wide research found more than a quarter of
in-patients with a severe mental illness had moved at least once in
the year before hospital admission - nearly half of them twice or
more - with the figure rising to 39 per cent in the previous two
years.
Researchers for Imperial College and the Institute of Psychiatry
found the mobile patients are being overlooked by funders despite
the fact that they are extremely expensive to provide services
for.
"These findings suggest that greater mobility could be one of
the most important reasons for the higher than expected demands on
psychiatry services and the difficulties in maintaining contact
with patients in London in general and inner London in particular,"
says the report published in the Journal Social Psychiatry and
Social Epidemiology.
· Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
(2000); 34; 164-169 from 01483 418800.