National Preventive Mechanism Child and adolescent psychiatry in Austria – shortage in the training of specialists In the report on “Outpatient Psychosocial Care of Children and Adolescents” by the national research and planning institute for health care Gesundheit Österreich GmbH reference is made to the result of epidemiological studies on child and adolescent psychiatry, setting forth that an average prevalence rate of children and adolescents needing psychiatric care of 17.5% can be assumed. This means that with 1,713,979 children and adolescents in Austria in 2012 younger than 19, there is a population of 299,946 persons requiring treatment. Of this number, 9.7% of all children and adolescents, i.e. 166,256 children and adolescents are impacted by a psychiatric disorder in a more narrow sense and are thus definitely in need of treatment. High number of children and adolescents needing treatment For this relatively large group of children and adolescents in need of psychiatric treatment, however, the treatment availability by specialists for child and adolescent psychiatry is widely lacking. The figures provided by the Austrian Medical Chamber and the Federal Ministry of Health differ slightly, but one can assume that currently only slightly more than half of the approximately 350 specialists who are needed to ensure adequate care are actually available. Insufficient treatment available The reason for this serious gap in care lies primarily in the fact that the statutory basis for independent specialist training in the specific field of child and adolescent psychiatry was only created in 2007. The delayed establishment of a corresponding professional profile has had the result that many of the currently registered specialists acquired their title during the transition period between the time when child and adolescent psychiatry was only a supplementary field to when it was established as a special field and only a small number is actually practicing in the core area of child and adolescent psychiatry. The number and age structure of specialists makes it practically impossible to identify the number of psychiatrists in Austria that will be effective as far as care is concerned anytime soon. Additionally, the training capacity for specialist training was at times not utilised accordingly because operators of hospitals set other priorities and permanent positions were reclassified for other specialties. In the course of efforts by the Laender to expand inpatient bed capacity in the area of child and adolescent psychiatry, due to these factors, there are problems in filling the necessary specialist positions, which will inevitably continue to come up in the future (see NPM Report 2013, pp. 41 et seq.). Visits by the commissions have shown that in hospitals with psychiatric wards for children and adolescents it is often impossible to man night and weekend shifts with specialists for child and adolescent psychiatry. Due to the lack of specialists, the commissions have found that children and adolescents are housed and treated in adult psychiatric wards, which according to the CPT is a violation of preventive human rights and professional standards. Rule requiring separation of adults and adolescents is violated 97