[The psychiatric department of the general hospital in community mental health care].

Decentralizing mental health care and integrating psychiatry in general hospitals requires new strategies for mental health work. The Austrian Structural Plan for Health 2006 identifies psychiatric departments in general hospitals as pacemakers in creating a needs-based service organization on a regional level. We describe psychiatric departments in general hospitals, how they specialize in responding to the needs of a particular region, and how they relate to community mental health services and general health care.