[Social psychiatry today--what is it? Attempt at a clarification]

Related presumably to its heterogenous historical roots, the term "social psychiatry" is understood in divergent ways. The purpose of the present article is a clarification of its definition and contents on the base of current praxis in Switzerland and elsewhere. In the framework of a comprehensive psycho-socio-biological understanding of the psyche, social psychiatry is defined as the domain of psychiatry which tries to understand and treat psychiatric disturbances in close relation with their social environment. Its main focus is in the community, where a whole range of innovative half-way institutions and therapeutic-rehabilitative methods have been developed during the last 10-20 years. They are mainly indicated for patients suffering from disturbances of intermediate severity who no longer need continuous hospitalisation, but generally overtax the possibilities of private psychiatrists and traditional ambulatory services. The relative specificity of social-psychiatric approaches, research questions, therapeutic methods, infrastructures, targeted populations and community-related organisation of care speaks for a further systematic development of social psychiatry on the practical, and especially also on the academical level. This is also indicated from the economical point of view, because community-centered methods of treatment are considerably less expensive than full-time hospitalisations, according to recent cost-benefit -evaluations.