voluntarily and who have a strong sense of solidarity as a peer group.
A concept that is intended to promote seamless interaction between
those minor patients who are here under the Hospitalisation Act and
those who have been admitted voluntarily, as they are in need of
treatment, also involves risks. The unintended result, which is difficult
to foresee in advance, is that both groups can become overwhelmed
and thus create the potential risk of re-traumatisation. Frequent
confrontations between adolescents, who are highly aggressive due
to their illness and the other patients can increase fear depending on
the dynamics of the group.
For example, Commission 3 observed a massive outburst of
aggression by an adolescent, and could see for itself that his
behaviour, but also the experience of how the acute incident was
dealt with, was experienced as threatening by female patients.
The clinic is planning to develop an electronic notification system when
someone leaves the ward as an alternative to locking the door to the
ward, thus providing the scope of freedom that does not prevent a
permitted, intentional change of venue. In the opinion of the NPM, this
will require accompanying measures in order to truly exclude potential
risks that could spread. The NPM believes that – even for alternative
solutions – an eye must be kept on overwhelming scenarios for minors
resulting from the joint care situation in the form of a concomitant
evaluation.
Alternative to locking
the ward door is being
planned
Locking ward doors must be considered a measure that restricts freedom and must not
result in an inadmissible “de facto compulsory admission” of uninvolved minors.
Potentially overwhelming situations that can result from joint care of adolescents, some of
whom are being treated under the Hospitalisation of Mentally Ill Persons Act and some of
whom are being treated voluntarily, must be minimised.
2.2.2.5.
Deficits in psychiatric care in Carinthia
During visits to the Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutical
Medicine at the Regional Hospital Villach, Commission 3 found that
space is extremely limited. Some patients are being cared for in rooms
with six beds. Furthermore, the Regional Hospital Villach does not
have the capacity required for the territory covered by the hospital to
ensure the care of patients placed in a protected area.
Insufficient capacity in
Regional Hospital
Villach
These inadequate framework conditions result in the fact that many
patients, who are admitted under the Hospitalisation Act, are being
brought to the Department of Psychiatry at the Regional Hospital
Klagenfurt by ambulance after their initial examination.
Transfer to Regional
Hospital Klagenfurt
necessary
These transfers of patients in acute danger of self-harm or of harming
others are frequently carried out without a physician and sometimes
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