Sök artiklar i SveMed+

Tidskrift

Sammanfattning

Background: The organization of aftercare is important for a successful outcome; still the optimal organization has not been fully explored. An intensive transitional post-discharge aftercare (TA) programme, for a mixed group of non-psychotic patients, was recently developed. Patients with non-psychotic diagnoses are often discharged with low well-being while still symptomatic, placing high demands on aftercare. Aims: To evaluate retrospectively the short and long-term mental healthcare service use during and after the TA programme compared with the service use of a retrospective comparison group (RC), receiving less intensive outpatient aftercare. Methods: Number of re-admissions, bed days and emergency visits after 10 weeks, 6 months and 1 year was retrospectively collected from electronic patient registers. Descriptive statistics, independent samples T -tests and repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to compare the groups. Results: The majority of patients in both groups suffered from affective disorders, followed by personality disorders and a small number of other psychiatric diagnoses. Service use in the TA group was lower than in the RC group with fewer bed days after 10 weeks ( P  0.01) and after 6 months ( P  0.003), and fewer re-admissions after 6-12 months ( P  0.04). Emergency contacts did not differ signifi cantly between the two groups at any point. Conclusions: The present study indicates benefi cial effects of intensive TA, for a mixed group of non-psychotic patients. The lower service use in the TA programme group is in line with day treatment programme research for patients with affective disorders.

MeSH