Patient Guided Psychiatric Admissions

To meet the requirement for increased patient involvement, several Community Mental Health Centres (CMHC) have initiated a service called "patient-guided admissions". The investigators will compare a group with "patient guided admission/self-referral to inpatient beds" with a group having treatment as usual.

It is expected that patients in the intervention group will experience more increased feeling of coping (patient activation) after 4 months and 12 months as a result of participating in "patient-guided admissions" than patients getting treatment as usual. In addition the total number of inpatient days either in the CMHC, psychiatric hospital or community rehabilitation centre is expected to be clearly lower in the intervention group than in the 'treatment-as-usual' group during one year after intake. Also the number of involuntary admissions either as inpatient or outpatient will be significant lower in the intervention group than the 'treatment-as-usual' group.The number of admissions in CMHC and psychiatric hospital, as well as the number of outpatient consultations in primary care, CMHC and psychiatric hospitals, will be lower in the intervention group than in the 'treatment-as-usual' group. Patients in the intervention group will experience improved mental health, increased feeling of coping (patient activation) and increased experience of recovery after 4 months and 12 months as a result of participating in "patient-guided admissions".