Abstract Background Since Goffman's seminal work on psychiatric institutions,
deinstitutionalization has become a leading term in the psychiatric debate. It described the …

The reasons for the problems created by deinstitutionalization have only recently become
clear; they include a lack of consensus about the movement, no real testing of its philosophic …

The care of patients with mental illness has undergone major changes over the last two
centuries. In the 19th century, large asylums were built throughout industrialized countries to …

Modern social psychiatry is aiming at integration of the mentally disordered in the community
instead of institutionalization–with or without institutions. No doubt, the majority of mentally …

Over the past several decades many nations have embarked upon dedicated efforts to
reduce, if not to eliminate, the role of psychiatric hospitals in the treatment of mentally ill …

It is rare today to read a professional or lay article in the field of mental health that does not
in some way depart from, allude to, and/or offer criticisms of or suggestions for implementing …

This paper provides an interpretation, based on the social systems theory of German
sociologist Niklas Luhmann, of the recent paradigmatic shift of mental health care from an …

The process of deinstitutionalization has led to the closing or downsizing of former asylums
and to the development of community-based mental health care models in many countries …

Objective: To empirically analyze the implementation of the policy of deinstitutionalization of
psychiatric services over a 40-year period. Method: We assessed the policy of …

This paper offers a panoramic assessment of the significant changes experienced by
psychiatric care in Western Europe and North America in the course of the last decades of …