ABSTRACT
Historically, community care has been associated with hospital closure and this has contributed to the tendency to regard the hospital as separate from—if not inimical to—community care. Now that most psychiatric wards are located geographically within the locality they serve, there is greater opportunity to think about the relatedness of the hospital to community services. Nonetheless, it is not uncommon to hear community-based staff talking about the hospital as if it were far away, unknown and frightening, while ward staff can still feel very cut off from the non-hospital part of their patients’ lives. This chapter looks at some of the consequences of not holding the total system of care in mind.
