Hospitals and psychiatric institutions
XX
The non-hospitalised care of patients following in-patient psychiatric treatment must be
ensured nationwide in order to avoid non-indicated stays in hospital.
XX
Attention shall be paid to setting up after-care facilities for patients with special needs
which have sufficient staff to provide the individual care of these persons.
2.2.8
Continuing inappropriate placement of the chronically
mentally ill
The NPM already criticised the placement of chronically mentally ill persons
in Styrian nursing homes in the past (see most recently NPM Report 2017, p.
38 et seq.).
Placement in nursing
homes and medical
facilities
The demarcation of competencies regarding the psychosocial care system in
Styria continues to be unclear. The Styrian Disability Act (Steiermärkische
Behindertengesetz) guarantees chronically mentally ill persons the right to full
in-patient, partial in-patient, out-patient and mobile support under certain
conditions; Section 4 (4) of the same law allows those affected to even choose
between the available facilities and services. However, pursuant to the Styrian
Social Welfare Act (Steiermärkische Sozialhilfegesetz), the groups of persons
mentioned above may also be placed in nursing homes and medical facilities.
An additional incentive for admitting persons with psychiatric diagnoses to
nursing homes and medical facilities was recently created with the regulation
on Social Welfare Act services and remuneration that came into effect in
October 2018.
The regulation stipulates the payment of a so-called “psychiatry supplement”
for the admission of the group of persons mentioned above to such institutions
and facilities. This is considerably more than the care supplement applied in
the otherwise customary standard cost model. In addition, the “psychiatry
supplement” was increased by 7% in 2018.
Private nursing homes and medical facilities operate on a profit-oriented basis
and want to ensure the capacity utilisation of their operations. Persons for
whom a “psychiatry supplement” is paid are thus often admitted for unlimited
periods of time. More importantly, this is possible because there are still not
enough other alternatives available for the care of persons with disabilities in
Styria.
The failure to expand local, small-scale care structures – which has been
requested for a long time – as well as misguided management (for example,
through the “psychiatry supplement” mentioned above) mean that a large
number of young chronically mentally ill persons in Styria continue to be
hospitalised in private nursing homes and medical facilities.
58
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