Background: Waiting periods for inpatient or outpatient psychotherapeutic treatment are generally considerable. For patients treated in a psychiatric day-clinic or hospital, implementation of a recommended subsequent psychotherapeutic treatment might be difficult.
Objectives: In part II of the psychotherapy after hospital or day clinic (PAKT) study, we examined how the recommendation for psychotherapy can be implemented after psychiatric treatment.
Materials and methods: Three months after discharge from one of four psychiatric hospitals in southern Germany, we interviewed 306 patients who received a recommendation for psychotherapeutic treatment after their hospital stays if the recommendation was implemented successfully.
Results: Only about 12 % of the patients in the follow-up group were unable to implement the general recommendation for psychotherapy after psychiatric stay despite motivation for psychotherapeutic treatment. In the case of recommendation for outpatient psychotherapy, 20 % were unsuccessful. Predictors for successful implementation were education and employment, whereas variables like age, gender, diagnosis, or severity of disorder did not play a significant role.
Conclusions: The relatively small percentage of unimplemented psychotherapeutic treatment is surprising at a first glance. However, the proportion recommended for psychotherapy after psychiatric stay was less than 10 %, as shown in the first part of the study (see PAKT Study Part I, doi:s00115-016-0107-z).
Keywords: Implementation; Predictors; Psychiatry; Psychotherapy; Utilization.