Less Time to Do More

Will psychotherapy survive to be a vital part of inpatient treatment in the future? Will inpatient units themselves survive, or will they be replaced by partial hospital programs complemented by supervised housing arrangements? Will average length of inpatient stay continue to decrease, or has it reached its lowest possible level?

Less Time to Do More: Psychotherapy on the Short-Term Inpatient Unit examines the implications of shorter stays for the practice of inpatient psychotherapy. The contributors describe techniques that inpatient psychotherapists can use to remain therapeutically effective despite increased pressure from managed care companies and the threat of malpractice suits. This book utilizes over 20 years of research on techniques and strategies to bring the reader the most up-to-date methods as well as the traditional models of inpatient treatment.

"How can inpatient psychotherapists respond to the realities of modern hospital practice? Each of these chapters describes one facet of how the therapist can adapt his or her goals and techniques to treat seriously ill patients effectively in the limited time available."—Ellen Leibenluft, M.D., From the Afterword