Analysis of referrals received by a psychiatric unit in a general hospital Part 1: the need for and research design adopted to study referrals received by a psychiatric unit in a general hospital

Abstract

In order to receive holistic care, patients requiring psychiatric care, need to be referred to psychiatric services. The first part of this report reviews the need to analyse the referrals received by a psychiatric unit in a general hospital in the Republic of South Africa. The research design adopted to study this phenomenon will also be addressed. The research results, obtained from analysing the referred patients' records, will be discussed in Part 2 of this report.