[Long stay or short stay in a protected environment?].

The authors analysed the population of a surveyed center that has been functioning for the last 20 years in Lausanne. They noticed, after having taken into account the different variables, that this population corresponds with what one can find in the literature concerning other surveyed centers. While comparing the samples of long-term with short-term patients in the surveyed center, the authors noticed that the long-term group was composed initially by younger boarders, all single and professionally less qualified than the short-term patients. The interval between the first hospitalisation and the admission to the center was much shorter. The prognosis of the long-term boarders was already initially worse. The period of the stay in the center is beyond the good or bad functioning of the center. According to this data, a limitation of the period of the stay in the center is not justified.