for example, the New England States, the State mental hospital rate is 122 percent of the U.S. rate, the private mental hospital rate is 235 percent of the U.S. rate, but the general hospital psychiatric inpatient unit bed rate is only 47 percent of the U.S. rate.

Such regional differences are also illustrated by looking at the distri-
bution of different types of psychiatric beds by region, as shown in
Table 6. For example, 22 percent of the State and county mental hospi-
tal beds are located in Region II and 22 percent in Region V. These
two regions in total account for 44 percent of the State and county
hospital beds. This is due to the influence of two States, New York
and Pennsylvania. New York alone accounts for 17 percent of the total
State mental hospital beds in the United States, and Pennsylvania 8
percent. Together these two States contain one-fourth of the State and
county mental hospital beds in the United States. The rate of State
and county beds per 100,000 population in New York is 94 percent higher
than the U. S. rate, and this rate is exceeded only by that for the
District of Columbia. The rate per 100,000 population of State and
county mental hospital beds in Pennsylvania is 34 percent higher than
that of the U.S., and is exceeded in ten other States.

FOOTNOTES

1/ The figures given are for the number of beds set up and staffed for use as of December 31, 1972. These figures may differ from the "rated bed capacity" calculated on the basis of one bed per so many square feet. Since definitions of the rated bed capacity vary from State to State, comparisons between geographic divisions may be slightly distorted by using the rated bed capacity. Similarly, distortion is introduced by counting beds set up for use as of a given time, due to seasonal variation in utilization. Neither source of error is large enough to account for the differences illustrated here.

The percent

Estimates have been made for facilities known to be in operation as of
January 1972 but for whom the number of beds was not reported.
of facilities providing data on the number of beds is as follows:

Puerto Rico had two private mental hospitals in operation as of January 1972. Since neither reported data on the number of beds, no estimates have been made for private mental hospitals in Puerto Rico.

2/ Most of the psychiatric inpatient units in the general medical and surgical hospitals of the Veterans Administration units closely resemble short stay psychiatric hospitals both in size and operation (Characteristics of the psychiatric inpatient services such as bed size, staffing, etc., can be found in Psychiatric Services in General Hospitals 1969-1970, Mental Health Statistics, Series A, Number 11, National Institute of Mental Health). For this reason, these units are grouped with the VA neuropsychiatric hospitals and only one category "VA psychiatric hospitals" is

shown.

3/ Federally funded community mental health centers may provide inpatient care either in beds under the direct control and administration of the CMHC or through affiliation with another agency. In the latter case, only those beds for which center clients have priority or exclusive use are counted as CMHC beds.

4/ Beds in general hospitals outside of those in psychiatric units are excluded. These beds are used on an as-needed basis and are not specifically set aside for psychiatric patients.

5/ See Hospital Statistics 1972, American Hospital Association, Chicago, Illinois, 1973.

6/ For the purpose of this calculation, the total beds in all hospitals in 1972 as reported by the American Hospital Association (see footnote 5) was adjusted by adding to this total the number of beds in Residential Treatment Centers for Emotionally Disturbed Children. These facilities are not included in the AHA figures.

7/ The DHEW administrative regions have been used instead of those of the Bureau of the Census (see Statistical Note 45 in this series). The reason for this was to make these data more useful to the DHEW Regional Office staff. There does not seem to be any loss in the ability to make regional comparisons by using these DHEW regions instead of those designated by the Census Bureau.

8/ D.C. should be considered an exceptional case due to the utilization of St. Elizabeths Hospital by out of State residents, primarily Maryland and Virginia. Such use of the State mental hospital system by nonresidents is not true to such an extent in other states.

9/ The population used in the calculation of these rates was the civilian resident population as of July 1, 1972. Source: Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 488, U.S. Census Bureau.

10/ The estimated total number of beds in federally funded CMHC's is less than that shown in "Descriptive Data on Federally Funded Community Mental Health Centers 1971-72." The figure shown here, 10,609 beds, is a later estimate and should be considered more accurate.