Day Hospital

Acting Head: Vedran Orešković, MD, Spec. Psych.

The day hospital offers an alternative to the 24-hour hospitalization. The structured program of the day hospital provides diagnostics, treatment, and rehabilitation to people of both sexes, young people and the elderly, and various diagnostic-related groups of different mental disorders, while simultaneously keeping the patients within their family and social environment.

Excluded from this are patients whose actions may directly result in suicide, homicide, or serious acting-out, patients who are using psychoactive substances, and those with a severe physical illness that prevents them from participating in this program.

The treatment represents a simultaneously integrative, yet individually oriented approach based on an estimation of the cognitive, voluntary, and behavioral peculiarities of the individual and encompasses the patient’s stay in treatment from 8 AM to 4 PM. The patient is at home on weekends and holidays.

The patient’s motivation for the treatment, as well as their family’s support and willingness to cooperate, are of vital importance. If the patient is single, then special emphasis is placed on social skills training and communication with inclusion in various social support systems after discharge.

The day hospital is important for the patient and their family. Staying at a day hospital promotes socialization, which means acquiring the skills, knowledge, motives and attitudes necessary to perform current and future roles in society.

The patient learns to behave in a socially acceptable way. More attention is given to the patient’s adaptation to the environment and to the changing of their attitudes that lead to their conflict with the environment. This influences a change in the behavior of the environment towards the patient. Patients are encouraged to practice taking initiative, spontaneity and more intense communication. They learn to accept their illness, to recognize the early signs and to seek help on time.