The early outcome of admission to an adolescent unit: a report on 100 cases

Data are presented on the outcome of 100 adolescents after discharge from an adolescent inpatient unit. Outcome is recorded in terms of placement at home, day care provision, and partial or full-time residential care provison, relating this to diagnosis, sex, age, duration of admission and evidence of family pathology. Of these only duration of admission was significantly related to outcome. More than two thirds (69 per cent) of all patients are discharged home. At six months, of those traced, 82 per cent are at home. Stability of outcome is the norm. This reflects the bio-psycho-social approach of the unit and refutes the notion that psychiatric institutional care for adolescents merely predicts a continued need for therapeutic resources.