Crisis intervention for serious mental disorders. The example of the First Department of Psychiatry of Athens University
We describe the crisis management and resolution service for serious mental disorders established by the First Department of Psychiatry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The service is intended to meet patients' needs for adequate management of acute mental crisis without hospitalization, while implementing modern standards in mental care and considering existing restrictions in mental health resources and public expenditure. Last decade we witness an increase in demand for psychiatric beds in Psychiatric clinics of General Hospitals resulting in a drastic increase of auxiliary beds that becomes a serious problem in mental health provision. The shutdown of big psychiatric hospitals in the process of psychiatric reform, accompanied by a delay in the establishment of all the anticipated beds in general hospitals together with overloaded and insufficient network of mental health services in the community are the major determinants. Additionally, fiscal economic crisis of the last decade intensified even more the problem by diminishing funding for the recruitment of new personnel and drastically reducing allocated funding for new and old services. In 2016 we set up a crisis intervention service for serious mental disorders within the operational framework of the emergency psychiatric services of the Department of Psychiatry in Eginition Hospital in Athens. The crisis resolution team is composed by two psychiatrists, a psychiatric nurse, social workers, a psyc...
Source: Psychiatriki - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Maria Margariti Ilias Vlahos Katerina Koureta Paraskevi Chondraki Panagiotis Aristotelidis Dimitra Mpourazana Charalambos Papageorgiou Source Type: research
More News: Economy | Emergency Medicine | Expenditures | Funding | Hospitals | International Medicine & Public Health | Men | Nurses | Nursing | Psychiatry | Psychology | Students | Study | Training | Universities & Medical Training