The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry
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Aust N Z J Psychiatry · Nov 2005
Historical ArticleAustralia's National Mental Health Strategy and deinstitutionalization: some empirical results.
To determine the role of the National Mental Health Strategy in the deinstitutionalization of patients in psychiatric hospitals in Queensland. ⋯ In large part, the two policies associated with deinstitutionalization, namely a discharge policy ('opening the back door') and an admission policy ('closing the front door') had been implemented before the advent of the National Mental Health Strategy in January 1993. Deinstitutionalization was most rapid in the 30-year period to the early 1980s: the process continued in the 1990s, but at a much slower rate. Deinstitutionalization was, in large part, over before the Strategy was developed and implemented.