Psychotraumatologic unit for the treatment of severe psychiatric patients in a public hospital in Uruguay

In Uruguay, South America, in a public psychiatric hospital unit, a clinic has been developed for the treatment of patients with simple and complex PTSD with promising results. As an example, we can mention a patient with a diagnosis of brain injury with a poor outcome who turned out to have a severe dissociative disorder, and who had a favorable evolution with the right treatment. The population treated is very poor and heterogeneous. Some patients are hospitalized for crimes commited during psychiatric decompensation (theft, murder, rape). This paper will present the basics for creating such unit in a psychiatric treatment setting and describe the work with such difficult hospital inpatients and outpatients. In South American countries it is very hard to develop specific psychiatric care units in public hospitals because patients psychological problems also have serious social and economic problems. The theorical approach in the clinic is cognitive behavioral and EMDR, based on the fact that psychotraumatology is a discipline that has had a rapid development in recent years and its knowledge has become indispensable for the treatment of severe psychiatric illness.

Conference

English

Myriam Calero

Calero, M. (2011, November). Psychotraumatologic unit for the treatment of severe psychiatric patients in a public hospital in Uruguay. Presentation at the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation 28th Annual International Conference, Montreal, QE