[Assertive care as new treatment perspective for Austria].

Although intensive, assertive treatment options in child and adoledcent psychiatry have been successfully evaluated and established in several countries, this development is just beginning in Austria. As part of the so called home-treatment, care is provided by a multiprofessional team to patients with severe mental disorders, who would otherwise be treated in an inpatiet setting at their own home. This opens up the opportunity for a better generalizability of therapeutic progress and an intensive work with the family system.

[Raising awareness about depression together with service users and relatives - results of workshops for police officers in Lower Austria].

Objective: Within the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), community mental health services inform in their service region in Lower Austria (pop. 1.600.

[Psychiatry@home--establishing contact to a community mental health service via www].

Background: Psychiatric services increasingly use internet technologies to enhance and support usual therapies, which are based on direct personal contact.

Methods: An anonymous e-mail-request of a young girl obviously requiring psychiatric support and treatment is illustrated, characterized by the intention of the service to establish personal contact.

Conclusions: Chances and limitations of psychiatric interventions using the internet are discussed.

[Quality assurance of take-over from in-patient to out-patient care: experiences in Lower Austria].

Objective: Community mental health teams (CMHT) provide support for severely disabled, chronic mentally ill patients. In this study, referrals to CMHT by a psychiatric hospital in Lower Austria were analysed, as were the first few weeks of care for referred patients.

Methods: Referrals to CMHT of a catchment area (pop 250.