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Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Unlabelled: CONCERN: The current care and financial situation of mother-child units for psychic disorders associated with pregnancies in Germany should be documented in preparation for the development of the new reimbursement system for psychiatry and psychosomatics., Method: In accordance with the last survey of 2005, a brief questionnaire was developed and a nationwide poll was conducted., Results: The survey revealed severe (10 fold) service deficits for severely and gravely mentally ill mothers, who require an inpatient treatment with specific professional competence. Compared with the last poll, these service deficits have increased. This is due to continued insufficient funding and unresolved financing in the new reimbursement system. With the establishment of an additional code for mother-child treatment the precondition for ensuring the funding of this important care form in the new reimbursement system was created., Conclusion: It is to be hoped that the decision-makers of health policy will finally face up to their social responsibility and ensure adequate funding of the additional diagnostic and therapeutic expenditure of mother-child treatment. The health care providers have an obligation to implement a transparent record of services of the additional expenditure and to augment the national evaluation approaches to inpatient mother-child treatments., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Under current conditions psychiatric-psychotherapeutic inpatient care can not be sustained in its present form for much longer. Therefore, our main priority must be to adapt the care structures to the changes in society and psychiatry under consideration of the patients' needs. Cooperation, integration, and interlocking of cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary treatment provision are the challenge of the next decade. They will require networked organisation forms of high complexity as well as new mindsets and approaches. Significant steps and instruments of a structural transformation in the overall therapeutic services are elucidated using the example of a psychiatric care centre and discussed in connection with the introduction of a new reimbursement system for psychiatric and psychosomatic facilities in 2013. New cross-sectoral concepts could ensure care, particularly in regions with lacking or inadequate outpatient structure. Management competences combined with holistic thinking can help to create patient-centred alignments in this context., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Increasing psychiatric disorder treatment need, increased work load, changes in the working hour regulations, the nation-wide shortage of physicians, efficiency principle and economisation can necessitate a reorganisation of medical services. The essential steps and instruments of process optimisation in medical services for a psychiatric clinic are elucidated and discussed in the context of demographic changes, generation change, and a new concept of values., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Based on legal jurisdiction, knowledge of the psychiatric-psychotherapeutic field and insight into the necessity of a new allocation of responsibilities in the overall therapeutic service of a clinic, the core areas of medical activities are defined for the first time, innovative organisational approaches to the reorganisation of therapeutic service are presented and discussed against the background of qualified staff deficit, introduction of an OPS coding for inpatient psychiatry and economic constraints., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Current psychiatric-psychotherapeutic in-patient care takes place in an area of tension between increasing treatment requirements and the persistent lack of qualified staff. The optimisation of the diagnostic-therapeutic procedures in a clinic helps to reduce existing care deficits or to generate resources for future developments. The subject of delegation and substitution of medical services is considered in this context. Inadequate knowledge of the legal situation on the part of the decision makers impairs the indispensable trustful cooperation among the professions and adds to the uncertainty of all those concerned. The present paper outlines the legal, organisational and health policy aspects of delegation and the reorganisation of medical activities in the field of psychiatry., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Objective: Nationwide representative survey of the use of psychiatric outpatient services in Germany., Methods: Every fifth patient of several psychiatric outpatient services was surveyed on one index day (27 (th) of May 2008) with respect to sociodemographic characteristics, ICD-10 diagnoses, difficulties in communication, treatment duration, and number of sickness certificates., Results: Patients with immigrant background comprised 32.5 % of all patients. Compared to German patients, patients with immigrant background received significantly more neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (F4). Turkish patients received significantly more mood (affective) disorders diagnoses (F3), compared to German and Eastern Europe patients. Immigrants had shorter treatment duration and a higher number of sickness certificates. Eastern European patients had a significantly higher education, compared to patients with Turkish background. Patients with immigrant background were younger compared to German patients and had significantly more children., Conclusions: The utilization of outpatient psychiatric services by patients with a migratory background is high. This suggests that immigrants benefit from the multiprofessional team and the low-treshold service offered by outpatient units., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Objective: Is the integrated treatment of depressed elderly patients on a geriatric psychiatry unit superior to the treatment on a general psychiatry unit?, Method: Retrospective comparison of treatment outcomes of depression in elderly patients on geriatric and general psychiatry units., Results: The clinical outcome showed comparable results. Somatic examinations turned out to be more comprehensive on a geriatric psychiatry unit, which also showed better results in pharmacotherapeutic safety., Conclusions: Regarding risk management, geriatric psychiatry units proved superior to general psychiatry units.