The Open-Door Policy
A Rational Use of Controls
Gene M. Abroms M.D.1
1 University of Wisconsin Medical School Madison, Wisconsin
An open-door policy should be an end point rather than a starting point of psychiatric hospital treatment, and should indicate that more refined and effective means of control than a locked door are in operation. The main alternatives are careful regulation of admissions and discharges plus physical, biological, and social methods of control. The author points out that openness should not be achieved at any price but only when such controls can be feasibly maintained, and he discusses the dangers inherent in their use.
