What are the district psychiatric unit and psychiatric clinics?

The district psychiatric unit and psychiatric clinics are regional, outpatient treatment offers for persons over 18 years with a mental illness. There are district psychiatric unit and psychiatric clinics all over the country.

District psychiatric units typically treat people with schizophrenia and other psychoses or other forms of serious mental illness that require long-term treatment. Non-psychotic conditions are investigated or treated in the psychiatric clinics. Investigating or treatment in psychiatric clinics is often of shorter duration.

When one receives treatment here, one follows a so-called package course of treatment. This means that you offered a number treatment offers, which are to ensure that all citizens receive a uniform offer throughout the entire country. It is the regions that make the guidelines for the package offers.

You must have a referral from your own doctor, a psychiatric emergency room, a hospital department or private practitioner psychiatrists in order to be able to contact a district psychiatric unit or a psychiatric clinic. When a district psychiatric unit or a psychiatric clinic receives a referral concerning your situation, they will assess whether they can offer you treatment or not. You will then receive a letter with a time for your first appointment.

In some cases, you will be rejected, if it is believe, for example, that your treatment could just as well be take place either with a practising psychologist or psychiatrist, or in a municipal offer. After this, you can contact your own doctor so that you can be referred to the offer, which the psychiatric clinic or the district psychiatric unit recommends.

You will have your first appointment with a therapist from the psychiatric unit’s treatment team. During the first appointment, the therapist will try to form a general view of your situation and what you need. He or she will therefore ask you questions about how you are doing, what symptoms you have, which medications you are taking and how it is working, your wishes for the future and so on. On the basis of this conversation, the treatment team will discuss how they can best help you in the future.

The treatment takes place during the day time in the on-site facilities. The treatment team consists of various specialist groups such as psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and social workers. Treatment in the psychiatric clinics or in psychiatric units can consist of medical treatment, individual conversations or conversations in groups, including psychoeducation.

Psychoeducation is education in your illness where you learn something about your illness and how you can live with it. At the same time, the group also talks about how you can best handle symptoms and challenges in daily life. Conversations with relatives can also be offered.

There may also be meetings with other authorities which may be relevant to include in your treatment, for example your municipality, a centre for addiction/dependency or something else. At both places, you will be given a contact person, who is called a primary treatment provider. It is most often a nurse, and he or she is responsible for coordinating your treatment, which takes place in cooperation with a doctor.