[Emergency medicine interventions for psycho-social crisis]

Abstract

Psycho-social crisis intervention has emerged to be a routine treatment application in the pre-hospital emergency medical system in Germany. It is applied to both patients with psychiatric disorders and in psycho-social crises. For the latter, a psycho-physiological reaction is typical that can be treated with the BELLA concept. Psycho-social crisis intervention for the emergency physician must be regarded as psychological first-aid and is characterised by an immediate start, a limited time frame, consideration of security aspects, flexibility and a determination to pre-set goals and their achievements. We recommend to adequately document this complex service.