WHO issues guide for moving from psychiatric hospitals to community-based care

The World Health Organization published a practical guide for psychiatric hospital leaders and decision-makers seeking to move care for adults with long hospital stays toward community-based services. It frames deinstitutionalization as a system-wide reform involving policy, law, funding, housing, community services and changes in care practices.

The guide organizes adaptable, evidence-informed actions into three phases—plan, prepare and provide—and three areas of hospital influence: reducing admissions and lengths of stay, transforming care inside hospitals, and improving supported discharge and community participation. WHO says implementation requires coordination among hospitals, authorities, people with lived experience, families, workers and community services; the document is guidance, not a report of measured results from a single intervention.