Intensive outpatient treatment - a therapy option for all patients in child and adolescent psychiatry or just for a few?

Objective: "Child and adolescent psychiatric ward-equivalent treatment" (= stationsaquivalente Behandlung, StaB) is an intensive daily home treatment that has now become available in Germany. Conditions for StaB services were negotiated were negotiated, authorized and came into force by German healthcare commissioners and hospitals on 1 January 2018. However, to date few hospitals in Germany offer StaB, and its feasibility has been questioned. This study evaluates the first 58 cases of StaB in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, ZfP Sudwurttemberg (2018-2019). Method: All patients admitted consecutively to StaB from 1 January 2018 to 15 August 2019 were included and evaluated solely using descriptive analyses in SPSS.25. Results: The average length of stay in StaB was 37.95 days (SD 15.35).86.2% of the families completed treatment, with 3 patients discontinuing treatment and 5 patients needing inpatient admission. Unlike in the literature, internalising disorders predominated (70.7 %), whereas externalizing disorders were diagnosed in only 27.8% of the patients. The cost of treatment in StaB was on average 8779.25 (sic). Conclusions: StaB is a viable and well-accepted new treatment alternative for patients requiring inpatient admission. The multiprofessionality of treatment as well as daily contacts are required. Feasibility under the conditions set is given. The average length of stay is slightly longer, but the costs are lower than those of inpatient treatment.