Centers funded by State and locality as of Mar. 1, 1967—Continued Mr. COHEN. I would like now to permit Dr. Yolles to present the brief chart presentation on the mental health centers program. Dr. YOLLES. Mr. Chairman, I would like to start by pointing out the status of patients in our mental hospitals around the country. There are 289 mental hospitals in the country today. We have a very happy situation to report, in that over the past 11 years there has been a decreasing rate of patients resident in the mental hospitals at the close of each year. The numbers have been coming down in the hospitals, and this in the face of a very slowly rising rate of admissions to the hospitals. (See fig. 1, below.) PATIENTS IN STATE AND LOCAL MENTAL HOSPITALS 350 STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT MENTAL HOSPITALS ADMISSIONS AND RESIDENT NUMBER OF PATIENTS (IN THOUSANDS) There are more admissions per year, but in the face of increasing admissions, there is still a declining rate of resident patients at the end of the year. Mr. BROWN. It is 226 per 100,000? Dr. YOLLES. It is about 226 now. Dr. YOLLES. Yes, in State and county hospitals in the United States. Mr. ROGERS. 226 per 100,000? Dr. YOLLES. Yes. Here are the actual numbers. This table (fig. 2) is in terms of numbers, rather than rates. From 1946 to 1955-and preceding that, you will note that there was an increasing rate of patients remaining in mental hospitals. Now this is a continuation of that rate projected to the present time. If that rate had continued, we would have 702,000 patients in mental hospitals in the United States today. In 1955 a break in that upward trend occurred, due to a number of factors. Perhaps the principal factor involved was the introduction of the psychoactive drugs, but there are other factors. The actual numbers of patients remaining in hospitals at the end of 1955 started to come down. You will note that the rate of decrease is much more rapid in the last few years. This is the result of the introduction of inpatient services in general hospitals, and the introduction of more community mental health approaches. We have over 1,000 general hospitals in the United States today that now accept mental patients who did not accept them before. The introduction of those services has caused the decrease in resident patients. For this year, we are happy to report that the largest single decrease in the 11- or 12-year period involved an average per year rate decrease PROJECTED AND ACTUAL NUMBERS OF RESIDENT PATIENTS END OF YEAR, IN STATE AND COUNTY MENTAL HOSPITALS-UNITED STATES-1946-1966 YEAR 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 FIGURE 2. 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 |