Utvecklandet Av Vården Av Nya Schizofrenipatienter I Finland

Abstract

The paper describes the principles of system-oriented psychotherapeutic treatment of first-admission schizophrenics, developed in connection with the national schizophrenia project in Finland. The principles are based on the experience with need-specific treatment of schizophrenic patients in Turku. The therapeutic activities are planned and carried out in a flexible and integrated manner and so that they meet the real, changing needs of the patient and his closest environment. A special emphasis is now placed on initial examining sessions with the patient and his family members or others in the patient's closest interactional network. These sessions simultaneously start the therapeutic process and are in many cases continued during the later phases of therapy. Whenever several modes of treatment are needed, it is most often logical to proceed from less specific, family- and milieu-oriented treatment modes to a more specific and individual-oriented mode. However, a follow-up study of the activities is of crucial importance. One of the central recommendations of the national project is to establish multiprofessional psychosis treatment teams, which are to carry out the interactionally oriented initial examination, crisis treatment, and follow up of the new cases.