Berlin: (hib/PK) According to health experts, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic care in Germany must be reformed to meet the growing need. At an expert discussion in the Health Committee on the future of psychiatric care in hospitals on Wednesday, the experts made it clear that more staff, more prevention and flexible treatment across sector boundaries are needed.
Cornelia Metge from the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK) called for more staff in clinics, funding for inpatient psychotherapeutic training, more flexibility in hospital treatment and a better transition to outpatient care. Treatment according to guidelines is currently not possible in most psychiatric hospitals. The deficits are particularly striking when it comes to psychotherapeutic treatment. Although patients were cared for in clinics because they needed more intensive treatment, the minimum requirements did not enable optimal care.
Most patients need further outpatient treatment after hospital treatment, said Metge. This requires sufficient outpatient treatment capacities through a reform of requirements planning. Patients should also be able to take advantage of psychotherapeutic consultations in the practices during their hospital treatment.
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg from the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN) spoke of an enormous need for care. More than a quarter of adults in Germany become mentally ill every year and require treatment. About a tenth of them are seriously ill and need intensive, often chronic or recurring treatment. This group needs needs-oriented, doctor-controlled, flexible and cross-sector treatment.
The DGPPN proposes a care model with the guiding principles of outpatient before inpatient and prevention before therapy. In addition to full-time inpatient care, flexible part-time care with intensive outpatient treatment must be made possible.
Katarina Stengler from the Helios Park Clinic in Leipzig also discussed the group of seriously ill psychiatric patients. There are many patients in psychiatry with a complex need for help. These are people in existential distress because they live in poverty, have social challenges or age-related problems. She called for better prevention so as not to overload the supply systems.
An increase in acute and emergency admissions is also being recorded in hospitals. Aggression, violence and addiction are topics in psychiatry. At the same time, the hospitals would have to contend with staff exodus from acute areas as well as an increasing documentation effort, which ultimately affects care. Clinics would have to cope with staffing levels and a simultaneous shortage of human resources. In some houses the situation is dramatic.