DIRECTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS OF PSYCHIATRIC CARE
During recent years Russia has cut 50.000 psychiatric beds (or ¼ of totalnumber of psychiatric beds). Analysis shows that it became possible due to shortened duration of stay in the hospital of psychotic patients (almost amonth less) including schizophrenic ones (duration shorter by more than onemonth). As for other patient categories, duration of their in-patient treatmentdid not change. The proportion of patients with psychotic forms decreasedin hospitals from 82.3% to 68.4% and schizophrenic patients from 62.0% to49.0%. This resulted in shifting care for another group of psychotic patientsinto outpatient conditions and emphasized the importance of strengtheningand development of extramural services. One direction is development of social adjustment system for patientsand further improvement of psychosocial rehabilitation, including settingup in all regional care systems medico-rehabilitation units by dispensariesand hospital rehabilitation wards, as announced in the new ‘Procedure ofPsychiatric Care Provision’. The functioning of these units should be based on modern and primarily group methods of psychosocial and cognitiverehabilitation. Rehabilitation should become a priority.