by the Biometry Branch, NIMH and the National Center for Health Statistics. This survey identified 196 free-standing halfway houses which served primarily persons with mental and emotional disturbances. The August 1971 Inventory represented the second survey of these types of facilities. The initial Inventory of Transitional Mental Health Facilities, conducted in January 1970, identified 241 free-standing halfway houses which served the mentally ill. Of these 134 served only the mentally ill and 107 served the mentally ill in combination with other diagnostic groups. The difference in the numbers of psychiatric halfway houses identified in the two surveys is due primarily to a change in the classification scheme. For example, it is highly probable that some of the halfway houses classified in the January 1970 survey as serving the mentally ill and others did in fact serve primarily alcoholics with service to the mentally ill being incidental. In the August 1971 survey such facilities were classified as serving primarily alcoholics. While it is generally felt that the coverage for the August 1971 Inventory was more complete than the Inventory of January 1970, it is highly probable that there were still some psychiatric halfway houses which escaped coverage, and the figure of 196 should be regarded as a minimum.

Data were not obtained in either survey for halfway house programs provided within the administrative structure of other mental health service programs which accept only patients from the parent facility (e.g., halfway house programs of State mental hospitals and other primary treatment facilities. Other types of places not surveyed

include nursing homes and satellite living programs without round-theclock staff.

3/ The actual numbers of facilities responding to the survey items on which the tables in this Note were based are shown below:

4/ This factor is largely due to the utilization of separate living quarters by members of each sex. See discussion in Statistical Note 80 Psychiatric Halfway Houses - General Characteristics.

5/ Many of the long stay facilities serve as a more or less permanent residence for individuals who no longer need to be hospitalized yet are either too old, too ill, or have no marketable skill and can never be expected to live independently in the community.

TABLE B. AVERAGE NUMBER RESIDENTS IN PSYCHIATRIC HALFWAY HOUSES BY SELECTED FACILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPE OF HALFWAY HOUSE: UNITED STATES, AUGUST 1971