CRISIS TREATMENT IN A CONSULTATION-LIAISON UNIT

Evaluation of practices is necessary for the development of a health c are unit. In the CL unit of a Finnish university hospital, the crisis treatment was studied by evaluating the hospital records of all patien ts who had entered the programme during a year (n = 77). The crisis tr eatment seemed to concern in the first place persistently vulnerable p atients experiencing conflicts in interpersonal relationships. Most of the patients had depressive syndromes (78%), and suicide attempts wer e common (57%). The crisis treatment was usually short and compact, on average 5.2 appointments during 8.4 weeks. Two-fifths of the patients had previous psychiatric treatment and a half needed another psychiat ric intervention in 1.5 years after terminating the crisis treatment. Impulsive patients in crisis situations need easy access to psychiatri c services. In the hospital studied, this could be offered. The possib ility for quick intervention in a general hospital setting is likely t o help avoid hospitalizations yet provide the patients with the suppor t they need.