The Swedish Medical Association's basic programme regarding psychiatric care in Sweden

Summary

The essential purposes of the basic programme for psychiatric care drawn up by the Swedish Medical Association are as follows.

• (1) By consistent planning, to associate psychiatric care closely with other forms of treatment, thereby breaking the isolation which still obviously burdens psychiatric work.

• (2) By taking suitable organizational measures, to see that medical practitioners active in the field of psychiatry are employed in a rational manner.

• (3) To see that staff and material in the mental health services are generally utilized in such a way that no isolated and neglected fields develop or are preserved.

In principle, a necessary condition for the courses which should be chosen when carrying out these measures is a coordinated mental health service, divided into the care of acute and chronic cases and including rehabilitation and treatment of the disabled, in the same way as has been found rational in somatic medical care, with the modifications made necessary by reason of the special nature of the psychiatric discipline.

Finally, the basic programme confirms that a speedy modernization of the mental health services in Sweden, in order to render them more effective, is an urgent necessity and must be commenced immediately. The work of carrying out this programme must, however, be distributed over a number of years.