ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some of the practice implications that followed from establishing geographically-based area mental health services. It examines the practice implications of deinstitutionalisation in Victora as a case study that typifies what has taken place in most other states and territories. The acute in-patient units underwent a revolutionary transformation, as they moved from a model of providing longer stays for fewer people, to shorter stays with an emphasis on the community, providing care for other than the most acutely unwell. In regional areas many of the tasks of the different teams were collapsed into bigger teams. Variations of this model have since been adopted and are currently used in some urban area mental health services in response to a demand from consumers and their families for a more integrated service. The enormous advantages of deinstitutionalisation were that people could receive a service in their locality and that psychiatric services could be more in touch and responsive to their communities.
