[Child psychiatric intervention in connection with district psychiatry. A 2-year experimental project with child...

The aim of the study was to describe the requirement for child psychiatric intervention in children of psychiatric patients treated within community psychiatry and to test the possibilities for intervention in practice. The study was carried out in a community psychiatric centre in Copenhagen, to which a child psychiatrist was associated as a consultant for two years. Assessment of known risk factors for child psychiatric illness was carried out in the families of all patients admitted to the centre who had children aged 0-14 years. Intervention was systematically carried out and described. The project was evaluated in a survey among the staff of the centre. Sixty-five patients, of which the majority were women, and 86 children were evaluated. The most frequent diagnoses were psychosis and personality disorder. More than half of the children were less than three years old. Fourteen children had no contact with their ill parent and 13 were placed in care. Ten families were referred to child psychiatric treatment. Primary intervention was carried out in six cases. A questionnaire among the members of the psychiatric staff showed that the project was well accepted and considered to be of great profit to the patients and their children. We conclude that a high frequency of risk factors for child psychiatric illness were identified in families of patients in community psychiatry. The community psychiatric setting made preventive intervention possible at a time where no such measures otherwise would have been taken. It is therefore recommended that child psychiatrists are integrated in community psychiatry as consultants.