The relationship between distance from inpatient facilities and the rate of psychiatric admissions in Western Australia

Abstract

Western Australia is the largest and most sparsely populated state in Australia with all its specialised psychiatric inpatient facilities in Perth, the capital city. This study tested a number of hypotheses concerning the effect of distance from Perth, firstly, on total hospitalisation rates for psychiatric illness of the rural population and secondly, on the proportion who were hospitalised in Perth. High rates of alcoholism in males and of neuroses in females, together with local conditions in various rural centres, rather than distance from Perth, were major determining factors affecting both total hospitalisation and the proportion sent to Perth. The major exception was that the proportion of male alcoholics admitted to Perth hospitals decreased the further the patient lived from Perth. These findings were contrary to those reported in the literature. However the distances from Perth were much greater than those usually reported elsewhere. It was concluded that beyond a certain distance from psychiatric facilities, distance per se was not a major factor governing admissions to these facilities.