ABSTRACT
The Child Oriented FamilyTherapy (COF) is a new therapeutic method aiming towards infants in the playing age group and their families. COF is - originally invented in Scandinavia - spreading over Germany since the beginning of the 21st century. The prevalence for psychiatric disorders in toddlers, preschoolers and young infants in Germany lies between 14 and 22 %. Treatment in an outpatients' clinic with partial hospitalization is indicated whenever the psychosocial resources are too low or the symptoms are too severe to be treated in an ambulant environment. The outpatients' department for pediatric psychiatry in Gelsenkirchen is the first institution in its field to use COF as one module to treat their young patients and their families. Due to the setting adjustments of the original method are necessary, for example a conceptualization of disease, the use of COF as a diagnostic method and the embedding of COF in an underlying treatment plan.
