(Vienna/Rostock, 25 September 2024) A joint project between MedUni Vienna and PSD Vienna for successful inpatient and outpatient transitional psychiatry was awarded the Foundation for Outpatient Psychiatry in Childhood and Adolescence prize at the Congress of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy in Rostock.
The age between 16 and 25 often poses particularly difficult challenges for young people with mental illness. Continuity is crucial for young patients undergoing psychiatric treatment. While the integration of educational concepts into therapeutic concepts is just as important in child and adolescent psychiatry as the promotion of autonomy, the focus in general psychiatry is on self-responsibility. Reaching the age of 18 often entails the risk of treatment being discontinued and, as a result, a risk of the condition becoming chronic.
In cooperation between PSD Vienna and MedUni Vienna, the City of Vienna launched a project for outpatient socio-psychiatric transition last year. This enables the transition from child and adolescent psychiatry to general psychiatry to be structured and adequately supported. The scientific monitoring of the project carried out by Klara Czernin and Anselm Bründlmayer has now been awarded the prize of the Foundation for Outpatient Psychiatry in Childhood and Adolescence at the congress of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy in Rostock.
“By offering inpatient and outpatient transitional psychiatry, we have closed an existing gap in Vienna. This puts an end to the counterproductive breakdown of the relationship between patient and practitioner and ensures continuous and sustainable treatment in this sensitive phase of life. It is great that these measures by the City of Vienna are also being recognized internationally,” says Ewald Lochner, Coordinator for Psychiatry, Addiction and Drug Issues of the City of Vienna.
The chairmen and laudators emphasized the importance of transitional psychiatry in the coming years. In addition to the formal conditions, the challenges of the past often lay in the lack of or inadequate interfaces between the various disciplines of psychiatry. “The project for outpatient socio-psychiatric transition addresses these challenges. The intensive collaboration between child and adolescent psychiatry and adult psychiatry enables improved transitions in the treatment of young people,” emphasizes Anselm Bründlmayer from MedUni Vienna.