THE COST OF COMPREHENSIVE CARE OF PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA LIVING INTHE COMMUNITY - A COST EVALUATION FROM A GERMAN CATCHMENT-AREA

Background. In community mental health care, knowledge about costs of care is very limited. Only few studies have related costs to outcome m easures. Method. This German study assesses the cost of psychiatric ca re of 66 schizophrenic patients during one year of living in the commu nity. Predictors of high cost were identified. Results. The average co st of comprehensive community care of one patient of the cohort was US $ 353 per week. This was only 43% of the cost of constant long-term ca re in a psychiatric hospital. Significant predictors of total cost of community care were the number of rehabilitative problems at the begin ning and at the end of the study period, the type of accommodation bef ore index hospitalisation and the gender of patients. Conclusions. Res ults must be understood in terms of the characteristics of the special patient group and the catchment area we studied and are of high relev ance in planning future care.