Emptying Beds : The Work of an Emergency Psychiatric Unit (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care)

The work of inner-city emergency psychiatric units might best be described as 'medicine under siege'. "Emptying Beds" is the result of the author's two-year immersion in one such unit and its work. It is an account of the strategies developed by a staff of psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and other mental health workers to deal with the dilemmas they face every day.