Comparison of outcomes of acute care in short-term residential treatment and psychiatric hospital settings

Objective: The study compared the demographic and diagnostic characteristic s of clients and the outcomes of treatment in five short-term acute residen tial treatment programs and two acute hospital-based psychiatric programs. Methods:a total of 368 clients in the short-term acute residential treatmen t programs and 186 clients in the psychiatric hospital programs participate d in an observational study, The study used a repeated-measures design and assessed participants on multiple standardized measures of symptoms and fun ctioning at admission, discharge, and four-month follow-up. Comparisons bet ween the two groups were conducted separately by diagnostic category, Measu res included the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Behavior and Symptom Identifi cation Scale-32, the Medical Outcomes Short-Form-36, and the Client Satisfa ction Questionnaire-8. Results: The two types of programs admit persons wit h similar levels of acute distress who have comparable levels of improvemen t at discharge and an equivalent degree of short-term stability of treatmen t gains, Costs of treatment episodes were considerably lower for the short- term residential programs, and client satisfaction with the two types of pr ograms was comparable. Conclusions: Short-term acute residential treatment, is a less costly yet similarly effective alternative to psychiatric hospit alization for many voluntary adult patients.