[Social stations and geronpsychiatric care (author's transl)]

About 10 years ago reorganization of communal welfare services was initiated in the Federal Republic of Germany by the creation of so-called social stations. The method of working of these social stations incorporates important close proximity to the domicile or residence of the patients treated there. Hence, it is possible to make use of existing facilities without much extra effort in respect of organization, in order to translate some of the requirements of psychiatric care into reality. Since these services of these "social stations" are mainly utilized by elderly persons, these stations can take care of certain tasks of geropsychiatry. Social stations can also make important contributions towards early recognition and early treatment; they could strengthen outpatient care; they could prevent erroneous transfers to hospitals and could initiate neighbourship and lay help. On the whole, social stations should became more integrated into the local psychosocial care network to improve co-operative with other services.