ABSTRACT
Over the recent times, proclaimed cost effectiveness and favorable response from patients' perspective has resulted in a major shift from hospital to community care, especially for long-stay psychiatric patients. Our study was aimed at defining all the long stay psychiatric patients in Kuwait and assessing their dependency needs so as to make tentative suggestions for their rehabilitation. Information was obtained from case-notes and interviews with the patients and the charge-nurses. Two scales devised for the purpose of the study were used to estimate both the medical and the daily living needs of the patients. Out of a total of 150, more than half had been in hospital for more than five years and just under 4/5ths of them were schizophrenic. Just under 2/3rd s of the patients retained the abilities to wash, dress and undress, and control bowels; and about 3/4ths had not required any medical consultation during the previous month. Conclusions: About 2/3rd s of the patients can be discharged into the community. This would require ten community homes, each accommodating eight to ten patients. The possible number of patients requiring rehabilitation, however, may be much higher. It is estimated that for every long-stay patient in the hospital there are five similar patients in the community, living with and being cared for by their families. In order to accommodate long-stay patients living with and being cared for by their families, another 130 hospital beds and 180 places in the community would be needed