!!!Psychiatrische Krankenhäuser

Psychiatric hospitals: Until the end of the 18%%sup th/%  century 
psychiatric patients were kept in penitentiaries; under Joseph II 
the "Fools´ Tower" ("Narrenturm") was built 
on the grounds of Vienna´s Old General Hospital as the first 
attempt to establish some kind of care for psychiatric patients with 
increasing emphasis on the medical aspect. In 1853 use of the 
Narrenturm ceased, and in 1848-1853 the Lower Austrian provincial 
psychiatric hospital in Vienna´s 9%%sup th/%  district was 
opened. Subsequently the pavilion-like Lower Austrian provincial 
hospital for the treatment and care of psychiatric patients "Am 
Steinhof" (today the Psychiatric Hospital of the City of Vienna, 
located at Baumgartner Hoehe) was established in 1903-1907 with the 
co-operation of H. Schloess and J. Starlinger, both psychiatric 
physicians (church built by O. Wagner). In the course of the 
19%%sup th/%  century psychiatric hospitals were established in all 
Austrian provinces, which, in addition to university clinics for 
psychiatry, provide most of the in-patient psychiatric care in 
Austria. Since the mid-70s Austria's psychiatric hospitals have been 
updating their facilities to conform to modern psychiatric treatment 
methods, focusing on openness, decentralisation, out-patient forms of 
treatment (in-patient treatment has been drastically reduced) and 
increased emphasis on social-psychiatric services, which are mainly 
provided on an out-patient or partially in-patient basis. The 
organisation of psychiatric hospitals and reform efforts in this field 
differ from province to province, but follow a uniform trend. In the 
last few decades, the Lower Austrian Psychiatric Hospital in  Gugging 
has attained an excellent reputation for its efforts to promote 
artistic activities among its patients ("Haus der 
Kuenstler").

!Literature
P. Berner et al., Zur Geschichte der Psychiatrie in 
Wien, 1983.


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