Three-Day Hospitalization—A Model for Intensive Intervention

A PREVIOUS paper1has described the theoretical rationale and planning for the development of an inpatient Emergency Treatment Unit (ETU) at the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC). The ETU is designed to investigate the use of brief (three-day) intensive hospitalization as a model for providing inpatient care which is especially tailored to the type of problems presented by lower socioeconomic class patients. Such patients often present themselves at the emergency room of large city hospitals as being in the midst of an emotional crisis with which they cannot deal effectively. ETU admits such patients from the Yale-New Haven Hospital emergency room with the goal of helping the person focus on current life struggles in order to facilitate the individual's return to the level of functioning that preceded the disruption and crisis that led to his seeking hospitalization. Following discharge from the three-day hospitalization a one-month