[Solving crisis situations in psychiatry]

Provision within the area of medical care has been made for psychological and social intervention in some crisis situations. A Help line telephone service called "Linka nadĕje" was established in 1965 and a crisis intervention centre in 1989. Client characteristics, and an analysis of telephone calls made during the course of three ten year periods (N = 27,268 total phone calls) are compared with 10,021 contacts and 1,781 first admissions during a five year period at the crisis centre. Data showed that both institutions help meet current crisis and in the long term they should both reduce the risk of psychological crisis, reduce the incidence of suicide, they should also help prevent both primary and secondary illness and supply sufficient information on the surrounding area.