OCR Text |
Show Mental patients decline in 1966 The number of patients in state and county mental hospitals hos-pitals has declined for the 11th straight year, according to the U.S. Public Health Service. Ser-vice. The resident patient population popu-lation dropped from 475,202 in 1965 to 452,000 in 1966, a decline de-cline of 4.8, and the largest annual reduction in the 11 years. Over this period, the patient population decreased 19 at a time when the na- tion's population rose 20. Total admissions increased in 1966, but so did the number num-ber of patients released, reflecting re-flecting shorter hospital stays, the report said. Some 330,000 persons were admitted to the hospitals in 1966 compared to 314,000 in 1965 ,and 178,000 in 1955. The number of net releases re-leases (311,827) has more than doubled from the 126,498 patients pa-tients released in 1955. Stanley F. Yolles, MD, director di-rector of the National Institute of Mental Health, said that "The break in the upward trend occurred in 1955 because of a number of factors. Perhaps Per-haps the principal one was the introduction of the tranquiliz-ing tranquiliz-ing drugs. But part of the credit also goes to new treatment treat-ment techniques, the increased number of beds for mental patients pa-tients in general hospitals, and other .community services where people can get prompt treatment near their homes." |