In this article attention is asked to the similarity between the admission in a psychiatric hospital and the release from it. The admission as the end of a pré-patient-phase resolves some problems and creates new-ones; at the release some problems are solved and new problems are created. Persons with generally spoken not the most strong social base (first handicap) are confronted with the public reaction to exmental hospital patients (second handicap). An accumulation of problems with mainly a social character, concerning social functioning, is not always accompanied by an accumulation of personal strength and professional help or non-professional support forthcoming of the social networks of the ex-mental hospital patient. All this together may lead to recidivism and readmission. This article introduces a research on a sociological psychiatric base into the situation of ex-mental hospital patients in which ex-mental patients as well as their professional 'helpers' were interviewed three times: at the release moment itself, after three and after six months. The purpose is to discover what is happening living on the outside , what are the expectations of both categories about the near future and what was the outcome as experienced reality.