Department opened

A department for first psychotic episode has been opened at the Vitebsk Regional Clinical Center for Psychiatry and Narcology healthcare institution.

A severe mental illness that has arisen for the first time is a severe biological and social stress for the patient and their relatives.

The need to create a specialized department for the first psychotic episode is due to new views on the course and outcome of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

The work of the department's specialists is based on principles aimed at ensuring a psychotherapeutic environment in the department, reducing the stress associated with the first hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital, and forming a trusting relationship between the patient and the service as a whole. The wishes of patients and their relatives are taken into account, prescribed treatment is actively discussed, the patient directly participates in the choice of prescribed medications, and active psychoeducational work is carried out.

Favorable conditions have been created for the treatment of patients in the department, and modern renovations have been made. Both men and women are treated in the department. Residents of the region receive free assistance in the department. Foreign citizens are accepted for treatment on a paid basis. There is also a wide range of paid services for Belarusian citizens for inpatient rehabilitation after recovery from an acute condition.