[The landscape of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy in Germany: structures, challenges, and developments]. / Die Versorgungslandschaft der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und -psychotherapie in Deutschland: Strukturen, Herausforderungen und Entwicklungen.

For children and adolescents in need of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic care, outpatient, day patient, and inpatient facilities are provided. A new development is called "inpatient equivalent treatment" that consists of home visits by a multiprofessional team. This paper depicts the landscape of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Services, covering its historical development and the structural, care policy, and financing backgrounds. Until 2014, there was free choice of private practice locations in the outpatient sector, leaving rural areas and marginalized neighborhoods partially undersupplied until today.The number of beds in the hospital sector decreased significantly between 1991 and 2004. It later rose again in favor of improved regional access and smaller units, with an additional 50% of day patient places. Inpatient equivalent treatments are equally effective, but not yet established nationwide; only a few innovative models have been negotiated. Regional networks of all social support systems, aiming for child psychiatric supply networks, are limited due to the pillarization of the social system. In conclusion, an imperative cooperation between all services of the Social Security Code and enabling true cross-sectoral services would benefit CAP patients.

[Structural quality in inpatient and daycare child and adolescent psychiatry- indicators for planning future staff ratios for the era following the Psychiatry Personnel Act]. / Strukturqualität in der stationären und teilstationären Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie.

The German Psychiatry Personnel Act, which went into effect in 1990, has led to a decrease in the number of child and adolescent psychiatry inpatient beds, to a decrease in the length of stay, and to an increase in inpatient psychotherapy. Today, this act is outdated~ for a number of reasons, such as changes in the morbidity of the population, the rising number of emergencies, and new professional standards such as documentation. In addition, new legal provisions and conventions (like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) necessitate a complete reevaluation. Child and adolescent psychiatry needs a normative act to enable the necessary implementation. Many different rationales are available to support the debate.

[Hometreatment- an effective alternative to inpatient treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry?]. / Hometreatment -Eine effektive Alternative zu konventionellen Behandlungsformen? .

In many countries hometreatment (HT) offers a cost-effective alternative to hospitalization for children and adolescents with mental health problems requiring intensive mental healthcare. However, the database on HT varies as HT may refer to different models and settings of intensive outpatient treatment. In Germany HT is not used routinely in mental healthcare in child and adolescent psychiatry, therefore the data on HT in Germany, especially in child and adolescent psychiatry, are scarce although funding for studies investigating the effectiveness of HT is available. This review represents a comprehensive search in electronic databases (1980-2014) of literature on HT. It provides as well an overview of the underlying concepts of and the present evidence for HT. In addition, the evidence base on HT for specific child and adolescent mental health disorders is reviewed. Future prospects for the development of HT in Germany facing the upcoming change in health service commissioning (PEPP = «pauschalierendes Entgeltsystem in Psychiatric und Psychosomatik>>) are discussed, as HT in child and adolescent psychiatry, when accurately indicated, can be a valid alternative to inpatient treatment.

[The treatment needs of migrant children according to child and adolescent psychiatrists from medical clinics and in private practice]. / Anforderungen an die Behandlung von Migrantenkindern aus Sicht niedergelassener und leitender Ärzte für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie.

OBJECTIVE: How does the German child and adolescent psychiatry system respond to the increasing number of migrant children and adolescents? METHOD: Senior doctors from German child and adolescent psychiatric hospitals (Association of Medical Hospital Directors in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy in Germany, BAG) completed a specially constructed questionnaire about the treatment needs of migrant children, while a «random, representative¼ sample of child and adolescent psychiatrists in private practice (German Professional Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, BKJPP) was administered a slightly modified version. RESULTS: The 100 psychiatrists in private practice represented only about one-eighth of their group, whereas the 55 medical directors comprised a representative sample. One-third of the hospitals has treatments tailored to the specific needs of migrants. In both settings, however, competent interpreters were rarely found, despite the treatment problems arising from the understanding the illness by the parents, language problems, and the clinical knowledge of the patient. Cultural diversity is perceived as enriching. The migration background and the sex of child and adolescent psychiatrists influence the treatment of migrants. CONCLUSION: Facilitating the process of «cultural opening¼ in child and adolescent psychiatry involves enacting concrete steps, such as the funding of interpreter costs.

[The new hospital reimbursement system: a chance and a challenge to child and adolescent psychiatry or «much ado about nothing¼?]. / Das neue Entgeltsystem.

New legislation in the financing of psychiatric hospitals in Germany stipulates the introduction of a new reimbursement system for psychiatric child and adolescent psychiatric and psychosomatic hospitals in Germany by 2013. In several steps norms are to be empirically defined and services to be documented, and the current per diem system of hospital charges has to be replaced by a more specific system reflecting differences in the level of distinct patient groups. This discussion paper gives an overview of the legal framework as well as the risks and chances of the new system. An increased effort in documentation will be one of the clear consequences of the new system («much ado¼ ...). Psychiatric inpatient treatment will be much more transparent in detail, though it is not yet clear whether there will be a real improvement for patients (... «about nothing¼). The new system also offers the chance to introduce modern treatment concepts like home treatment. Such chances for innovation should be implemented to the benefit of patients.

[The dilemma of court expertise--commentary on the SSRI-tapering verdict by the Saxonian social court]. / Fragwürdigkeit eines Gerichtsurteils zur Antidepressiva-verordnung bei Jugendlichen.

We comment on a Social Court verdict that sentenced a German health insurance carrier to pay for the tapering of fluoxetine in a case of adolescent depression but not to payment for ongoing SSRI treatment in view of their off-label status. Evidence presented to the competent court, including a statement by the German Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (DGKJP), was inadequately interpreted or else misunderstood. The court abstained from substantiating its own competence, e.g. by means of an external expertise. Even though an earlier verdict by the Federal Social Court was taken into account, there were shortcomings with regard to its realisation. The physician in charge of such a case is confronted with therapeutical and ethical dilemmata, as well as with problems of liability, as the court-ordered discontinuation of pharmacological treatment could conceivably compromise the well-being of the patient. Due to the recent marketing authorisation by the EMEA for the use of fluoxetine in the treatment of depressed children above the age of eight years in Europe, the case may be settled. Yet the implications of juridical intrusions into medical practice and therapy regimes must still be addressed.

[Outcomes of prevention and treatment of adolescent psychiatric disorders in Turkish immigrants with reference to resources and risks]. / Ergebnisse zur Prävention und Behandlung jugendpsychiatrischer Störungen in türkeistämmigen Zuwandererfamilien unter Berücksichtigung von Ressourcen und Risiken.

Semi-structured bilingual interviews were conducted with 223 adolescents from Turkey and their parents in 77 volunteering immigrant families (field group) and in 40 outpatient families attending the adolescent service (CAP treatment group). Risks and resources for mental health were assessed in a qualitative approach based on contextual family theory, cohesion and adaptability according to Olson's Clinical Rating Scale. While adolescent psychiatric morbidity in the field group equalled an expected rate of 24%, families with psychologically healthy offspring significantly excelled in parental and child resources. Yet, resources did not separate symptomatic and non-symptomatic families (referring to child symptoms) as well as risks did. A parent without work constituted a risk factor of its own. Differentiating CRS from 3 to 4 steps of adequacy for child health (introducing a range of high cohesion or high rigidity alone as another step between normal and dysfunctional) led to classify 80% of non-symptomatic families as functional. Following our results, a resource oriented family therapy seems to be the most promising therapeutic approach. Social case management should be provided for at the same time.

[Prognostic predictors in medium-term inpatient treatment in longitudinal assessment--is there a lower limit for inpatient length of stay?]. / Verlaufsprädiktoren mittelfristiger stationärer Behandlungen im Längsschnitt--Gibt es eine Untergrenze stationärer Verweildauern?

A predictor for the individual length of stay (ILOS) was stable for 3 consecutive cohorts of annual inpatient admissions (n = 1.230, excluding drop-outs, crisis interventions for 14 days and less, longterm treatment for 250 days and more), in spite of decreasing average length of stay (ALOS). The predictor consists of CASCAP psychopathology variables, motivational and social functioning variables assessed by the therapist. ICD-10-diagnoses had no influence on ILOS. Improvement on MAS axis VI needed longer average LOS than improvement in symptoms. Unchanged patients had shorter LOS than improved ones, the lower limit of effective LOS being more than about 55 days for improvement of symptoms. Due to our findings, DRGs are not an adequate instrument to determine reimbursement of inpatient treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry.