Psychiatric day centres--the Singapore experience.

Psychiatric Day Centres are an important aspect of psychiatric community services and care. In Singapore we have developed our Day Centres with the needs of our own patients in mind. At present there are four Psychiatric Day Centres and they focus on vocational and psychosocial rehabilitation. A wide range of structured activities are provided at each of the Day Centres and the programmes are individualised as far as possible to meet the needs of each patient. A multidisciplinary team looks after each patient. This paper outlines the historical aspects of Psychiatric Day Centres and highlights the objectives of the Day Centres administered by Woodbridge Hospital. Patients are grouped into three categories according to their occupational and social skills; programmes and care are provided according to their needs. Of the one hundred and eighty attenders, the sex distribution is almost equal and they are mainly in the twenty to forty-nine age group. Schizophrenia is the most common illness among the attenders and the majority are in the Sheltered Work Group. More than half of them had attended a Day Centre for between one to two years and less than a third had recent admissions to hospital.