The Psychiatric services in the County of Storstroem consists of five groups. Three general adult psychiatry centres in the county serve the North, Central and South with populations of 100,000, 100,000, and 60,000 respectively. Two centres serve the whole county: Centre for Child and Youth Psychiatry and Centre of Psychiatric Expertise. In each of these groups there is a close integration of the social psychiatry and the therapeutic (medical) psychiatry for the patients with a need for both forms of help. The Psychiatric Services in Storstroems County treats about 4,200 patients a year.

Care Services

The county of Storstroem has from 2002 changed its service approach to a more local and societal focus. All medical staff is based at decentralised local psychiatric services. A concerted local psychiatric effort is initiated via a medical team for people with protracted psychotic illness in cooperation with the social psychiatric team's mobile staff members (home support). The Therapeutic team assigns a permanent contact person for each individual patient, in the clinical case manager concept. There are two long-term teams and one team for short-term treatment in every unit. Hospital beds are backup function that serves a closely defined need for shielding measures. Patients who do not have to be shielded are treated as outpatients. There are 80 beds for adult psychiatric patients, 14 beds for geriatric patients, and 10 beds for children and youngsters. The Centre of Psychiatric Expertise has the following specialist teams and clinics: Dementia Clinic, Clinic for Psychotherapy and Supervision, Clinic for Suicide Prevention, Department for Traumatised Refugees, and a Clinic for Liaison Psychiatry. The Group for Child and Youth Psychiatry has besides the therapeutic centre a social psychiatric County Youth Centre, which offers prevention, treatment for drug abuse and job counselling to the young. Help is also provided to young people not afflicted by mental illness. On 1 January 2007 a local government reform will be carried through. In the whole Denmark 98 municipalities will replace the previous 271. Counties are abolished and five regions will be created. The Psychiatry of Storstroems County will be rearranged in the new Region Zealand. The consequences of this rearrangement are unknown by now (spring 2006).

Training Resources

The department of Education, Development and Research makes sure the county's psychiatry staff is offered courses and training, so their competence level matches the demand for psychiatric services oriented to the individual and the family. This offer is also extended to municipal staff.

Current Research Issuses

The research department produces new understanding in close cooperation with the practice within social and therapeutic psychiatric services. Current research priorities include projects on retention of staff seniors, rehabilitation of children and youngsters, evaluation of mobile psychosis team, two projects on employment of users in mental health services, an EU-project (EMILIA) and a countywide project, involvement of users through open dialog, parents with mental illness and their children, reducing forced treatment, shielding, satisfaction of users and relatives (countrywide).

User Partner Organisations

User partner organisations include the national federation of associations of users and ex-users of psychiatry (LAP www.lap.dk), the national association of relatives to users of psychiatry (Bedre Psykiatri www.bedrepsykiatri.dk), and a national open nongovernmental organization for anybody who will work for improvements in the psychiatry (SIND www.sind.dk). These organisations are all represented in the local psychiatry councils.