National Preventive Mechanism In a current fundamental decision in 2014, the Supreme Court emphasised the “separation rule” for adolescents in psychiatric medical facilities. Thus the Supreme Court put the protection of personality rights of minors in psychiatric institutions and facilities into concrete terms for the first time; as a result, spatial separation of adolescents and adult patients is mandatory. Even though this decision concretely refers to a forensic ward in a psychiatric medical facility, one can derive an interpretation from it that makes a general separation of adolescents and adults in all psychiatric medical facilities mandatory. Amendment of the education and training regulations A 2014 amendment to the Act on the Medical Profession provides the statutory basis for moving further away than was previously possible from earlier training requirements at the level of the Regulation on Education and Training for Medical Practitioners (Ärzte-Ausbildungsverordnung) for the inadequately filled child and adolescent psychiatry speciality field. From the perspective of the NPM, it is absolutely essential that the training requirements for the specialist field of child and adolescent psychiatry be loosened, as otherwise there will probably not be enough specialists for children and adolescents who urgently need treatment until decades into the future. Assuming that the child and adolescent psychiatry is recognised as an inadequately filled field, the existing required training ratio of “1:1” should be increased as soon as possible. This, by the way, has occurred in the entire German-speaking world. This would mean that – in the spirit of a true regulation for an inadequately filled specialty field – a specialist could be responsible for at least two resident doctors with regard to training in the future. To illustrate the feasibility of this requirement, reference is made to the newly built University Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Innsbruck as an example. It can only fulfil its responsibilities (including improvement of care in the Land Tyrol) if it has additional specialists. In Vienna necessary additional improvements such as six permanent contracts for external medical practices with the Public Regional Health Insurance Office or an expected new specialist ward in the SMZ Nord Hospital must occur. Agreement on how to proceed was reached at a round table discussion initiated by the NPM with representatives of the Austrian Medical Chamber, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Austrian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The participants of the meeting agreed that it is no longer in dispute that training positions must be created not only in the inpatient sector but in the outpatient sector as a supporting measure as well. However, further discussions will doubtlessly be necessary, particularly but not solely with the Laender, which would largely have to bear the additional costs for the increase in training positions. A real improvement in the care of children and adolescents with mental disorders in Austria can otherwise not be achieved in the foreseeable future. 98