relieves the burden on hospitals

Mobile psychiatric outpatient clinic visits people at home

Pflug-Wallner with a patient: she sorts medication and helps through phases of crisis. A sick psyche often also means social withdrawal - a vicious cycle.(Bild: Sabine Salzmann)

On the road with the "mobile psychiatric outpatient clinic" of the provincial clinics: The team of nurses, psychologists, doctors and social workers come to people's homes to relieve the burden on hospitals.

Mrs. S. is currently experiencing a low point. The resident of a retirement home in Salzburg is plagued by delusions. She crouches in her chair like a heap of misery and is already longing for a visit from Bettina Pflug-Wallner. "That will get better," says the nurse and takes Mrs. S. by the hand. She is familiar with the wave trough of emotions caused by bipolar disorder. Medication alleviates the symptoms, but so do empowering conversations.

Always on the way to her patients: Bettina Pflug-Wallner helps with everyday problems such as visits to the doctor and applications to the authorities, or she simply listens. Carers like her take a lot of pressure off the psychiatric outpatient clinic.(Bild: Sabine Salzmann)

Integrated Care Salzburg (IVS) was founded six years ago. The team operates as a kind of mobile outpatient clinic and visits people with chronic mental illnesses at home or in retirement homes to support their care. Outside the clinic, the support network for psychiatric patients is often not close enough. There are long waiting times. Often the only option is to return to the outpatient clinic. The team knows many fates: schizophrenia, biopolar disorders or depression.

Then Pflug-Wallner starts her service electric car again and continues on to Mr. L.: he lives alone and works in a workshop. "Here comes my angel," he beams. Without the IVS team, hurdles such as a visit to the dentist with an online application for reimbursement would be insurmountable for the psychiatric patient. He doesn't have a smartphone or even a computer. Pflug-Wallner: "Digitalization also causes problems for our patients." Her aim is to reintegrate people back into life. "We spread a net for them."