[Residential facilities and day centres in mental health. Is there any difference?].

Aims: We wanted to investigate to what extent and in what characteristics the patients cared in the psychiatric residential facilities (RF) were similar to those in the day-centres (DC), and whether 6-month improvements in the two settings were comparable.

Methods: We described 141 patients admitted to the RF and 180 in DC of three mental health service networks in Milan and near Milan. They were evaluated again after six months.