Maison Blanche is not just another psychiatric hospital. A network of community psychiatric services, Maison Blanche covers the whole north-eastern section of the city of Paris, an inner-city area with high levels of unemployment, exclusion, immigration, drug use, HIV/AIDS and poverty. Fifty different inpatient and outpatient facilities, including one of the largest psychiatric hospitals in France, offer mental health care to a target population of some 700,000 people.

Care Services

Maison Blanche is currently undergoing a major transformation. For inpatients, the old hospital, some 25 kilometres out of Paris, is being progressively replaced by a series of smaller inpatient structures, situated as close as possible to the communities they serve. Of the 2600 beds on the old site at its high point in the mid sixties, only 490 beds are in use today – and, by the end of 2005, most will have been moved back into Paris. At the same time, a greater diversity of services are being created in order to meet more specific needs. Specialised units for children, adolescents, drug and alcohol users, people with HIV/AIDS and older people suffering from dementia offer a wide range of social and psychological prevention, care and rehabilitation services. In the year 2001, 70% of Maison Blanche's 14,000 patients will use only outpatient services.

Training Resources

Nor does Maison Blanche only care for patients. A Further Education centre for specific staff skills training, a major nursing school, library and conference facilities and a new research centre are just some of the services available to both the personnel and the community. In addition, our open partnership policy has led to a large number of joint projects not only on local but also on international levels, with research, development and hospital co-operation programmes in a growing number of countries.

Current Research Issuses

Current research priorities include projects on user rights and satisfaction, two European projects – ISADORA, on dual diagnosis, and EMILIA on life-long learning and employment in mental health –, CAPE2P on the prevention of mental health problems in young children, as well as a multitude of smaller service evaluation programmes.

User Partner Organisations

User partner organisations include the National Federation of Associations of Users and Ex-Users of Psychiatry (FNAP-PSY www. fnappsy .org and the National Union of Friends and Family of People with Mental Health Problems (UNAFAM) www. unafam .org , both of which are represented on the Hospital Board.