Therapists operating with a preference for an ecological approach of psychiatric problems will prevent hospitalisation on — if there is no other way — promote admissions of short duration. The admission is seen as a short interruption of the out-patient treatment or is used to commence an out-patient treatment. Directive therapy could be of great help to shorten the duration of the adminissions. In this article the working method of a psychiatric department of a general hospital with a preference for a directive approach has been described. Some data on admission duration and diagnosis have been compared to figuren of other departments of general hospitals and psychiatric hospitals. When one has chosen for a so-called 'acute admission function' the diagnosis of the admitted patients appears to have a closer resemblance to the patient admitted into the psychiatrie hospitals than to those who are admitted into the psychiatrie departments of general hospitals.