ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the social dimension in the treatment of schizophrenia. All over the world, an overwhelming majority of schizophrenic patients are being cared for in a community psychiatric framework, because most patients need a variety of services, including both outpatient and inpatient care as well as supportive measures and social welfare services. Due to both ideological and economic considerations, political factors have often influenced the fate of schizophrenic patients. In the Nazi doctrine of eugenics, schizophrenia was considered a degenerative illness that was to be eliminated from society. Stephen Fleck (1995) recently published a critical survey on dehumanizing developments in American psychiatry in recent decades. Connected with the National Schizophrenia Project in Finland, Vinni (1987) presented a summary of the overall costs of schizophrenia in Finland in 1985. The chapter examines the developmental needs of treatment systems, starting specifically from the premises for carrying out the need-adapted treatment of schizophrenic patients.
