Redefining Acute Psychiatric Care: Strategies for Improved Inpatient Experiences

This is volume II of our previous collection, (linked here). Evidence best practice suggests minimizing the length of hospital stay for patients with mental disorders by using hospitalization as the starting point of a new individualized therapy project. Particularly effective in reducing relapses in severe mental disorders is the use of territorial multidisciplinary teams with the identification of a case manager. In severe mental disorders, the intensive case management model is effective in reducing hospitalizations and improving the duration of the service relationship. In this perspective, even if the therapeutic project should be organized outside the hospital, there is still a need to improve hospitalization in the acute phase, both in terms of appropriateness and in terms of the quality of the care provided. The time has come to rethink acute hospitalization services, providing new treatment modalities, even in the most acute phase of subjective suffering.

Although the length of hospitalization should be limited, it is necessary to transform the hospital into a place where the patient must feel good, must receive personalized assistance, and must obtain an answer to his/her care needs. Fundamental in this new perspective is the reduction of mandatory health treatments, the reduction of mechanical and pharmacological restraints. Acute hospitalization should be viewed as a phase of the patient's project and not as an intervention isolated from the rest of the care pathway. It would be appropriate to start some evidence-based psychosocial rehabilitation practices already in the hospitalization phase, such as, patient and/or family psychoeducation, in order to improve the engagement with the service and the global outcome in the medium and long term. In the hospitalization phase, it should be taken into account some at-risk populations: adolescents, elderly patients, subjects with substance use disorder, and with medical comorbidities. The training of all the staff members on the following issues is also crucial: teamwork methods, management and prevention of hetero-aggressive and suicidal risk, interview techniques, and ways to establish a correct therapeutic relationship with the patient.

The aim of this Research Topic is to evaluate the outcomes of hospitalizations in psychiatric acute wards for the different diagnoses and for the different types of patients. In this perspective, it would be important to evaluate not only the clinical outcomes, in terms of improvement of the psychopathological symptoms that led to hospitalization, but also some areas of psychosocial functioning.

We welcome research articles, literature reviews, case reports, and perspectives covering but not limited to the following themes:

- Personal recovery of inpatients during and after hospitalization
- Patients’ legal rights in a psychiatric hospital setting
- Ethical issues that may arise in the treatment of patients with mental health
- Psychiatrists’ role in supporting inpatients lead a fulfilling life
- Treatments and therapies for inpatients with mental health disorders
- Investigating the use of acute psychiatric hospitalization.