Rehabilitation and psychotherapy of patients suffering initial and chronic psychotic affections – Complex care at the day-patient community center “Fokus”

Overview

The objective of the present paper is to report on the seven-year on-going project support by international grants, in which the author participates actively. In question is a program of regular rehabilitation and psychotherapeutic sojourns for patients suffering psychosis, which is whollysingular not only in the Czech republic but also in all of Europe. The project “Circus Therapy” applying elements of art-, music-, drama- -therapy, physical exercise, and narrative therapy, is a component of complex care of the day-patient center (DPC) “Fokus”, Prague, and is focused indiscriminately on patients chronic psychotic disease as well as on patients suffering initial psychosis. Experience from the DPC “Fokus”, Prague, confirms the results of a number of studies and reports in the literature according to which complex care in DPCs improves compliance in patients, improves their adherence to pharmacotherapy, lowers the number of relapses and so even of repeated hospitalization, and as a result reduces a great percentage of costs for the treatment of such patients.

The author presents a review of the group of patients that have participated in the project “Circus Thearapy” within the years 1997 and 2004, arguing against the opinion that care in DPCs is not sufficiently professional from the point of view evidence-based medicine, and documents to the contrary that complex therapy of patients down with psychosis in DPCs is on a high professional level.

Key words:
psychosis – intermediary care – day-patient center – psychotherapeutically and socially oriented psychiatry – neurobiology – circus therapy – family therapy – geslalt therapy – pharmacotherapy