In the latest years, mental hospitals have gradually been replaced by a community-based network of facilities, including non-hospital residential facilities (RFs). Little information is still available about their costs. Our aims were to estimate the costs of Italian RFs and to evaluate which factors affect the cost of RFs and their patients.
Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Ospedale Policlinico G.B. Rossi, Piazzale L.A. Scuro 10, 37134 Verona, Italy. francesco.amaddeo@univr.it