The role of the psychiatric day hospital in a community mental health program: a group process approach.

Preliminary findings from our own and other settings indicate that a psychiatric day hospital may be utilized as an alternative to 24-hour total institutionalization for between two-thirds and three-fourths of all patients who would ordinarily be hospitalized for acute psychotic manifestations. Moreover, since the day-hospital approach involves continuing patient-family contact during the period of hospitalization, it provides a unique opportunity for the concurrent study of family and group processes associated with the hospitalization. Our experience suggests that a group-process approach may be usefully employed in planning and directing the patient's individual and family treatment program, as well as providing a conceptual framework for understanding and influencing both the day-hospital milieu and its role in the network of community mental health services.