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Abstract
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Introduction
In many regions, the increased demand for child and adolescent psychiatric and psychotherapeutic services is being responded to with planning, investments, renovations or optimizations. The covid pandemic and its consequences for young age groups with significant mental and emotional effects have further advanced this process. In the canton of Lucerne, a standardized, systematic process integrating all interest groups (so-called stakeholders) began in 2017 in order to initiate an expansion and improvement of adult as well as child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient care.
This was based on two aspects:
1. The clinical epidemiology of the definable disorders (depression, trauma, eating disorders, ADHD, etc.) and the herein resulting prevalence, as well as assumptions about the demand for care and clinical experience of how time-consuming the interventions are.
2. A scenario based on previous clinical experience of the demand for care and intensity of the average clientele, sorted into 3 groups (long-term patients with relatively low care demand, average patients with moderate, time-limited demand for care, constellations requiring short-term interventions).
Results
On the basis of these two calculation bases, the psychiatric planning report for the canton of Lucerne was unanimously accepted by the cantonal parliament at the end of 2020 and the two aspects resulted in the establishment of specialist consultation hours in child and adolescent psychiatry and an increase in the total number of therapists (adult as well as child and adolescent psychiatry).
Discussion:
Clinical epidemiology is a a useful tool in organising child and adolescent psychiatric treatment services.
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