[Does Provision of Care in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry End when Viruses Come? Hometreatment in Times of Covid-19].

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic, provision of care in child and adolescent psychiatry was a challenge: Emergency presentations as well as psychiatric problems in children and adolescents increased, while at the same time capacity of inpatient treatment was reduced due to closed inpatient departments and staff shortage. Altogether quarantine, social distancing, testing and hygenic measures complicated daily life as well as inpatient treatment. This article describes the change in numbers of inpatient emergency admissions and prevalent mental health diagnoseses, as well as the role of hometreatment during Covid-19 pandemic. It can be demonstrated that the hometreatment team was able to operate without reduction of treatment capacities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic as long as they took care that basic hygienic measures were in place, Not one single case of Covid-19 infection was transmitted. Hometreatment proved to be an effective treatment alternative for children and adolescents with mental health problems and their families during Covid-19.