Patterns of public mental health service use by age in patients with schizophrenia

Objective: Authors examined the relationship between age and use of public mental health services by adults with schizophrenia in a large mental health care system. Methods: The study sample included 4,975 patients treated for schizophrenia in San Diego County's Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) during fiscal year 1999-2000. They compared three age-groups: 18-44 years (young adults), 45-64 (middle-aged), and 65-or-older (elderly) on 1) the number of individuals treated for schizophrenia per 10,000 people in The county, and 2) the use of six different types of public mental health services, including hospitalization, emergency psychiatric unit, crisis house, outpatient clinic, day treatment, and case management. Results: Elderly patients with schizophrenia were underrepresented among AMHS users with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The use of hospitalization, emergency room, crisis house, and day treatment was highest among young-adult patients and decreased with age. Outpatient treatment use was similar for young-adult and middle-aged patients and lower for elderly patients. The only type of service use that seemed to increase with age was case management. Even after controlling for gender; ethnicity, living situation, substance use disorder; and insurance status, most of the above-mentioned age-related differences in service use persisted. Conclusion: Among Patients with schizophrenia in a public mental health system, old age was a,associated with significantly lower use of all mental health services except case management. Research is needed to explore reasons for this differential use of services across age-groups.