LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf Hospital of the Heinrich-Heine University ...

doctors of the Düsseldorf University Hospital and the
affiliated 7-day Day Care Unit on the grounds of the
University Hospital.
Emergency admission unit
Medical Director: B. Janssen, MD, Senior Lecturer in
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Senior Consultant (since
2009), G. Winterer, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy (from 2005 until 2009),
F. Schneider, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy (until 2004)
Divisional Director of Nursing: D. Kohl
The emergency admission unit is the hospital’s first point of
contact for patients suffering from mental problems and/
or known or suspected psychiatric, neurological or addictive
disorders as well as for their family members in need of help.
The services of the emergency admission unit feature – in
addition to emergency assistance in the case of a sudden
crisis – the provision of psychiatric-psychotherapeutic advice
about the facilities for inpatient, day clinic and outpatient
treatment at the LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf, including external
assistance and counselling (for example, in self-help groups).
Such counselling services may also be provided by phone.
Individuals come voluntarily for inpatient treatment mainly
of their own accord, because their doctor has referred them
or because they have been referred to the LVR-Klinikum
by another hospital. Some individuals require psychiatric
diagnostics and therapy because of legal regulations that
regulate the hospitalisation and healthcare arrangements of
vulnerable people. The emergency admission unit is open 24
hours a day, seven days a week, and has at least one medical
doctor and one nurse ready to see patients at all times. The
unit cooperates closely with the outpatient units for borderline
personality disorder, for people who either are migrants
themselves or come from migrant families, and for people
with ADHS in adulthood.
Psychiatric-psychotherapeutic consultancy services
Director: B. Janssen, MD, Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy, Senior Consultant (since 2009), G. Winterer,
MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (from 2005
until 2009), F. Schneider, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry
and Psychotherapy (until 2004)
The psychiatric consultancy service supports the Düsseldorf
University Hospital and, until 2009, also supported the Sana
Hospital at Gerresheim (the former Gerresheim Municipal
Hospital). All psychiatric conditions are treated, in close
coordination with the medical doctors from the respective
hospitals. Any psychiatric advice that may be required will be
given on the same day. The outpatient unit and the Day Care
HealtHcare
Unit on the site of the Düsseldorf University Hospital ensure
that patients of the University Hospital can receive in situ any
concurrent psychiatric treatment they may require.
Centre for the early detection of mental
disorders (FEZ) Düsseldorf
Director: B. Janssen, MD, Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry and
Psychotherapy (since 2009), G. Winterer, MD, Professor of
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (from 2005 until 2009).
The FEZ Düsseldorf evolved from the “Early Detection
Centre for the Provision of Advice and Assistance to Patients
with an Increased Risk of Mental Disorders”, operated by
the Competence Network on Schizophrenia (see p. 58). On
the basis of the results from studies that have explored
possible ways of detecting the early signs of at-risk states
for psychosis, the FEZ aims at early detection and early
intervention in the prodromal stage of psychotic disorders. A
team of medical doctors and psychologists provides advice
and assistance to those suffering from these symptoms
and the members of their families. In addition to medical
information, the team also provides counselling and support
for social problems (at work, at school and with partners) and
offers individual and group psychotherapy; drug treatment is
offered if the individual is already in the late-prodromal stage
of developing psychosis. The FEZ teams are also involved
in PR campaigns to increase the general awareness about
possibilities for early detection and intervention, for example
by giving lectures and distributing information material to the
public and organising seminars on the premises of the FEZ.
The diagnostic methods they use and the psychotherapeutic
and pharmacological interventions they offer are scientifically
evaluated in the context of the Competence Network on
Schizophrenia, in close cooperation with other University
Hospitals. As part of the PREVENT study, researchers at the
FEZ are evaluating cognitive behaviour therapy approaches in
comparison to special drug treatment strategies. Their effects
on the development of psychotic illnesses, i.e. their potential
to prevent such disorders or to alleviate symptoms, have
never been studied in this way before.
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