A register investigation was carried out as of December 31, 1980, with the aim of giving a broad description of a child psychiatric clientele 30 years after admission to hospital. The material consists of 322 patients--189 boys (59%) and 133 girls (41%)--who were admitted during the period 1949-1951 to the only 2 child psychiatric departments at that time in Denmark. We succeeded in identifying 93% of the patients. The mean age at the time of analysis was 38.6 years (range 32-46). The material was compared with the age-related Danish population by marital status, vocational education, and socioeconomic class. A total of 115 patients (36%) had been admitted to an adult psychiatric department, and 50 patients only once. A total of 95 patients (30%) had committed criminal offences and 12 had only committed traffic offences. A total of 60 patients (19%) had obtained disability pensions. During the 30-year follow-up period, 19 patients (6%) had died. A statistically significant extra mortality was found only for women. Four patients had committed suicide. By logistic regression analysis, a statistically significant correlation was found between criminal record and admission to psychiatric department and the variables: divorce, no vocational education, and lowest socioeconomic class. About 54% had managed well, judging by the variables employed.
The object of this investigation was registration of all requests for access to case records in 1987 in all departments for child and adolescent psychiatry in Denmark. A total of 34 requests were made concerning child psychiatric departments and 55 concerning departments for adolescent psychiatry. This corresponds to requests for access to case records in 0.8% of all patients admitted to departments of child psychiatry, and also 0.8% of the outpatients. In the departments for adolescent psychiatry, access to the case records was desired concerning 16.5% of the hospitalized adolescents. No complaints have been made concerning access to the case records and it is concluded that the new Danish law functions satisfactorily also where parents were concerned, where the possibility of providing limited insight for adolescents or parents may be of value. The significance of introduction of a period of limitation for access to case records in departments for child and adolescent psychiatry is emphasized.
Commencing on 1.1.1987, all requests for access to case records were registered prospectively in all of the Copenhagen County Hospitals. In the Copenhagen County Hospital, Nordvang, 103 requests were made for access to the case records in the course of 1987. Ninety-five requests in the adult departments resulted in complete access in 90 cases, limited access in one case while access was refused in three cases. One person making the request did not turn up. Eight requests concerning patients in the child psychiatric department resulted in complete access in one case, limited access in five cases while access was refused in two cases. This corresponds to 3.0% in the departments for child psychiatry and 2.7% in the departments for adults. No deterioration in health was observed in any of the 97 cases where access was permitted. In many cases, insight into the case records may, on the other hand, be a good therapeutic measure. On two cases only, access to the case records was given to a third person with the patient's permission, and the majority of the patients did not request a copy of the case records but accepted access to the case records in the form of the right to read the case records with assistance, if necessary. It is concluded that in the first year after introduction of the Danish legislation concerning access to the case records, this ran very smoothly with fewer difficulties than anticipated in a large psychiatric hospital in the region of the capital.
This article describes the current Acute Project within Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Nordland County, Norway. One of the aims of the project is to gather information about referrals defined as acute. The numbers of acute referrals for the whole county from 1990 are presented, together with more detailed information from the Salten district. The following variables regarding acute referrals are given attention: gender, age, problem description, diagnosis, and cooperation and consultation with other professional agencies. During clinical work in 1990, the opinions of clients and co-workers were gathered concerning which aspects of working with children and their families in crisis they considered as important. These covered both direct client work and work with larger systems. A summary of these considerations is presented.
