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

lVr-KlINIKUM DÜSSelDOrF – HOSPItal OF tHe HeINrIcH-HeINe UNIVerSItY DÜSSelDOrF
2.2.1.3 Division of Gerontopsychiatry and Psychotherapy
The Division of Gerontopsychiatry and Psychotherapy provides
(inpatient and day clinic) healthcare to all sectors in the
Düsseldorf region and roughly 560,000 citizens. In principle,
patients aged 64 and older are admitted. The division has
99 beds and 25 places in a Day Care Unit. After an initial
assessment at the emergency admission unit, individuals are
allocated to one of the specialised wards.
Secure admission units
Treatment by any of these units is provided to persons who are
suffering from a mental disorder that requires hospitalisation
in the secure conditions of a secure ward. A multiprofessional
team addresses the various mental disorders that often
accompany old age – among them, most commonly, depressive
disorders and dementia. People are only admitted to a secure
ward if they pose a risk to others or themselves. The secure
wards are also equipped to provide persons suffering from
acute and severe mental disorders and comorbid somatic
illnesses with intensive medical and nursing care. The wards
accommodate people who have come voluntarily as well as
people who have been referred on the basis of the Act for
the Protection of the Mentally Ill or on the initiative of a legal
guardian. Treatment options include psychiatric therapies
(through drug treatment and psychotherapy), nursing and
sociotherapeutic interventions, ergotherapy, exercise therapy
and physiotherapy as well as support from social workers.
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Secure admittance wards
3 A, 14 A, 14 B
Intensive care ward
14 C depression
Intensive care ward
14 D psychotic disorders
Day clinic 3 B
Outpatient clinic
Division of Gerontopsychiatry und Psychotherapy
Cross-sectoral
99 Inpatient Beds and 25 Day Clinic Places
Since older people often suffer from several illnesses at the
same time, the secure ward follows an integrated approach,
combining the treatment of mental disorders and the treatment
of somatic illnesses in close coordination with medical doctors
from the respective areas.
Specialised units
Depression unit
People with affective disorders are treated with drug
treatment and behaviour therapy, assisted by ergotherapy
and physiotherapy. The unit admits people who have been
directly referred by medical doctors in general practice or who
are being transferred from the secure wards of the Klinikum.
All patients receive individualised therapy and may, after
attenuation of their acute symptoms, be sent home or gradually
reintegrated through attendance of the Day Care Unit.
Psychotic disorders unit
This unit mainly provides drug treatment and behaviour therapy
to people suffering from chronic paranoid-hallucinatory
psychoses. Ergotherapy and physiotherapy are also offered. The
unit admits people who have been directly referred by medical
doctors in general practice or who are being transferred from
the secure wards of the Klinikum. Since it is often difficult to
achieve psychosocial reintegration of people suffering from
chronic paranoid-hallucinatory psychoses, the unit also offers
sociotherapy. Most people need to be reintegrated gradually
through attendance of the Day Care Unit.
Day Care Unit
All psychiatric disorders that are commonly associated with old
age – specifically dementia, depression and psychoses – are
treated in the Day Care Unit. Treatment is given subsequent
to full inpatient treatment, in the form of a temporary crisis
intervention or as a part of a diagnostic clarification that
requires something more permanent than an outpatient
arrangement while not demanding full inpatient admission.
Essentially, Day Care Unit treatments are designed to prepare
individuals for returning to their home environments. As a rule,