Networked collaboration in child and adolescent psychiatry needs support
04.03.2015 18:42
Child and adolescent psychiatric practices, clinics, pediatricians, psychotherapists and others must work closely and in a structured manner to improve the care of children and adolescents with psychiatric illnesses. This is what the professional association for child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosomatics and psychotherapy in Germany (bkjpp) demands.
The association calls on the self-administration of health insurance companies and associations of statutory health insurance physicians, but also political decision-makers, to develop financing options for such closely networked care models. “The current remuneration for individual treatment measures must be supplemented by remuneration for network work, which alone makes arrangements and collaboration possible in a structured manner,” said the chairman of the professional association and deputy chairman of the central association ZNS (SPiZ), Dr. Gundolf Berg, on the occasion of the 34th Congress of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy eV (DGKJP). The meeting of the specialist society will take place from March 4th to 7th, 2015 in Munich.
“Practice doctors and clinics would like to take joint responsibility to develop further offers, such as ward-replacing or supplementary treatment options, which also enable seriously ill children to be treated at home,” explained Berg. However, the separation between inpatient and outpatient care and their completely different remuneration systems have so far hardly allowed such approaches, he criticized.
The bkjpp and the Federal Working Group of Leading Physicians for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (BAG) are currently developing models for the structured collaboration between practicing specialists in child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosomatics and psychotherapy (KJPP) with clinics, day clinics and outpatient clinics. According to Berg, these networks must not only work across institutions but also across disciplines. In addition to the KJPPs, psychotherapists, pediatricians and adolescent doctors, social educators and special education teachers are particularly important for the children and young people affected. In this context, Berg emphasized the close cooperation between the bkjpp and the professional associations for neurology (BVDN), for psychiatry (BVDP) and for neurology (BDN) in the joint central association ZNS.
“But we need political support to finance structured local networks, because this cannot be achieved without appropriate remuneration,” says Berg. He pointed out that there is currently no functioning, independent KJPP model project in Germany. “However, the close collaboration between various specialists and facilities in a regional network ultimately saves treatment resources and could make a significant contribution to ensuring that the affected children receive the therapy that is appropriate for their individual situation more quickly. “Waiting times for psychotherapy places would also be shortened,” Berg is convinced.