“Closing the gap in psychiatric care for people with serious mental illness”

Community mental health care is becoming increasingly popular in many countries, aiming to alleviate the challenges for people with severe mental illness. At the conference, inspiring lectures will update on recent achievements and challenges, and we invite participants to present data and experiences and use the opportunity to discuss with colleagues from all over the world.

Community Mental Health Centres for individuals with severe mental illnesses were established in Denmark in the 1980s. Over the years, these were augmented with Assertive Community Teams (ACT) and Early Intervention Teams, and more recently, numerous Flexible-ACT (FACT) teams have been introduced. In alignment with Denmark’s “10-year plan” for psychiatric reform – including a substantial increase in budget – , a detailed treatment framework for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) has been developed. This framework outlines the responsibilities of psychiatric services across the five regions and social psychiatry in the municipalities.

Despite the presence of Community Mental Health Teams, ACT, early intervention, and FACT teams, the current capacity is inadequate, leading to suboptimal care, waiting-lists, and a “revolving door” scenario where patients are discharged before they are fully prepared to manage their own treatment.

Through this conference, we discuss experiences (professional as well as peer-expert) and scientific evidence from different countries, regarding theories, interventions, and various treatment models that help in building Community Mental Health Care for individuals with severe mental illness. The aim is to close the gap between knowledge (about what works) versus daily practice.