Portugal

Programme information

1. Contact young people after first Psychotic Episode
2. Eating disorders (ED)
3. Family Therapy
4. Psycho-oncology
5. Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics
6. General Adult Psychiatry
7. Day Hospital 
8. Electroconvulsivotherapy (ECT)
9. Community Psychiatry Unit
10. Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry Unit
11. Acute Inpatient Psychiatry Unit + Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
12. Partial Hospitalization Unit (Day Hospital)
13. Consultation of Bipolar Disorder and Liaison Psychiatry
14. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Programmes description

These 7 programmes are offered in the Centro Hospitalar São João and have the same details:

Centro Hospitalar São João

1. Contact young people after first Psychotic Episode
2. Eating disorders (ED)
3. Family Therapy
4. Psycho-oncology
5. Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics
6. General Adult Psychiatry
7. Day Hospital 

- city: Oporto

- unit / hospital: 
  Inpatient Unit, Outpatient Unit / Centro Hospitalar São João

- address, website:

  Alameda Prof. Hernâni Monteiro, 4200 - 319 Porto, Portugal,

  http://www.hsjoao.min-saude.pt

- introduction:

 The São João's Hospital (Hospital São João) is the biggest hospital of the North of Portugal. It is a General Hospital with a Department of Psychiatry. And it is also a University Hospital that works side by side with the Faculty of Medicine of Oporto.

- length: 2 - 4 weeks 

- periods available: All year round

- requirements: 
       language - Basic Portuguese 

1. Contact young people after first Psychotic Episode

- description:

  In this programme it’s our purpose to facilitate the contact with young people who had a first Psychotic Episode and also with their families and their therapists. Emphasis on psychopathological evaluation and differential diagnosis will be done. 

  We shall present the multidisciplinary group involved in this programme.

2.Eating disorders (ED)

- description:
In this programme the aims are:
    - Theoretical explanation on the therapeutic model of the ED Unit (1/2 day)
    - Attending consultation/ Family Therapy of ED patients (2x1/2 day)
    - Acquiring Knowledge about clinical cases on inpatient treatment (2x1/2 day)
    - Group Therapy: attending 2 sessions in a week (2x2hours)20
    - Clinical cases presentation (1/2 day)
    - Attending the multidisciplinary weekly team meeting (doctors, psychologists, social workers)

3.Family Therapy

- description:
In this programme the aims are:
    - Theoretical explanation on Family Therapy and Systemic Intervention (1/2 day)
    - How to deal with inter-institutional relations (Mental Health, Court, Social Services)
    - Clinical cases presentation of psychosocial problems (2x1/2 day)
    - Attending family therapy sessions (10h/week)

4.Psycho-Oncology

- description:
In this programme the aims are:
     - Clinical activities observation
     - Participation in ambulatory medical appointments and admitted patients in the oncology units
     - Comparison of clinical activities in the different countries

5.Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics

- description:
In this programme the aims are:
    - Liaison Psychiatry ambulatory clinics (10 hours/per week)
    - Liaison Psychiatry (hospitalized patients – all medical and surgical Units, except for Psychiatry) – daily
    - Smoking cessation ambulatory clinics (5 hours/per week)
    - Chronic pain – Psychiatry ambulatory clinics (5 hours/per week)
    - Scientific meeting (once per week)

6.General Adult Psychiatry

- description:
In this programme the aims are:
    - Attending a general Psychiatry out-patient clinic
    - Attending specific consultations of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Psycho-Imunology, Alcoholism, Addictions, Gerontopsychiatry
    - Attending sexology consultation. Evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of transsexuals, sexual dysfunctions and sexual programmes
    - Observation of inward patients

7.Day Hospital 

- description:
In this programme the aims are:
    - Rehabilitation programmes of seriously mentally ill, including social skills training, cognitive rehabilitation, promotion of adherence, the development of insight, social rehabilitation and employment.
    - Attending Anti-Stigma Programmes, Psychoeducational groups for psychotic patients and families, Art therapy, Psychodrama (Morenean) groups like psychodrama with psychotic, psychodrama with eating disorders and cinedrama with psychotic
    - Attending Crisis Intervention and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Consultations

Amina Nazaralieva (Russia) and the Psychiatry team of HSJ

“Thank you for being very helpful and caring, for sharing your experience, time and ideas.” 

“Portuguese people know how to enjoy life, Indeed.”

“Special thanks to those who made my exchange programme unforgettable”

Electroconvulsivotherapy (ECT)

- description:

  The unit does ECT 3 times a week (Monday, Wednsday and Friday) in a mean of 4-6 patients each day, between 8:30 – 10:30, using a MECTA Spectrum 5000Q device.

   ECT is a treatment for severe psychiatric illnesses. Present ECT techniques use sedation, muscle paralysis, ventilation with oxygen, and brief-pulse electrical stimuli that virtually eliminate the past risk of fracture and minimize transient cognitive dysfunctions. The mortality rate (about 2 deaths per 100 000 treatments) is less than that reported for normal childbirth and is associated with the anesthesia risks.

   Although the effect of ECT on memory emerges in public discussions, previous research clearly demonstrates the circumscribed and mostly transient nature of the cognitive effects of ECT.

   Despite its well-documented efficacy and safety, ECT is widely stigmatized as a last-resort treatment. The high incidence of chronicity and recurrence in severe psychiatric illnesses should encourage greater attention to improvements in ECT practice and to studies of its mechanism of action. 

   Unfortunately, the lack of experience with ECT during residency training and the failure to require such experience for specialty certification limits the ability of clinical psychiatrists to recognize patients for whom ECT may offer effective relief.

Hospital de Magalhães Lemos

- city: Oporto
- unit / hospital:
  ECT Unit / Hospital de Magalhães Lemos, Porto
- address, website:
  Rua Professor Álvaro Rodrigues, 4149-003  Porto, Portugal 
  http://www.hmlemos.min-saude.pt/
- introduction:

  The Hospital of Magalhães Lemos is a Psychiatric Hospital that provides mental health and psychiatric care to the population of the North of Portugal. The ECT Unit was established in 2006 with the aim to do ECT to patients in the ward, in some cases to out-patients and in few cases as a maintenance treatment.

- length: 2 - 6 weeks
- periods available: All year round
- requirements:
        language - Basic English 

Andreea Cazacu (Romania) with the ECT Team

“Dr. Jorge Mota, who is the supervisor for this exchange program, has a vast experience in ECT treatment. He was really helpful in explaining and providing needed information.”

“This has also been a great opportunity to observe the psychiatric training system in Portugal and in the same time to get in contact with its trainees. They have been really helpful and friendly throughout my stay.”

Andreea Cazacu with psychiatric trainees in a cultural event 

“This exchange program is a socio-cultural experience and I must confess one of the best in my entire live so fare. It is an impressive country that has a lot to offer and Porto is an incredible and unique town.”

“I truly recommend this exchange project. It is an extraordinary medical experience.”

These 4 programmes are offered in the Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca and have the same details. 

The visiting trainees can observe the regular clinical and training activities carried out in any of the following functional units:

1. Community Psychiatry Unit
2. Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry Unit
3. Acute Inpatient Psychiatry Unit + Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
4. Partial Hospitalization Unit (Day Hospital)

- city: Amadora, Lisbon 
- unit / hospital:
  Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca, E.P.E

- address, website:
  IC 19, 2720-276 Amadora, Portugal
  www.hff.min-saude.pt/‎
- introduction:

 The Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca is a General Hospital, integrated in the National Health Service, responsible for providing health care to a social and culturally diverse population of 600,000 people. The department of psychiatry, opened in 1996, was one of the first community-based psychiatric departments to be created in Portugal. The clinical activity is developed by multidisciplinary teams, both in the general hospital and in community mental health centers located throughout our catchment area, alongside General Practitioners and Public Health teams. This organization enables the proximity with several community structures, facilitates the access of patients to the outpatient consultations and the outreach of Community Mental Health Teams. The department also takes part in pre and postgraduate training of medical students and psychiatry trainees.

- length: 2 - 4 weeks
- periods available: January to July and September to December

- requirements:
     language - Basic Portuguese  




These 2 programmes are offered in the Hospital de Santarém and have the same details: 

1.     Consultation of Bipolar Disorder and Liaison Psychiatry
2.     Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

- city: Santarém

- unit / hospital: 

  Inpatient Unit, Outpatient Unit / Hospital de Santarém

- address, website:

  Avenida Bernardo Santareno, 2005-177 Santarém

  www.hds.min-saude.pt/
- introduction:

 The Hospital of Santarem is a General Hospital with a Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. It started its activity in 1985 with 240 beds. The Hospital currently has a capacity of 414 beds, of which 134 are assigned to the medical field, 160 to Surgery, 18 to Psychiatry and Mental Health, 85 to the Department of Women and Child and 6 to the Intensive Care Unit. The institution is also equipped with all major medical and surgical specialties, serving a population of approximately 200,000 inhabitants.

- length: 2 - 6 weeks 

- periods available: All year round

- requirements: 

       language - Fluent English and Basic Portuguese

1. CONSULTATION OF BIPOLAR DISORDER AND LIAISON PSYCHIATRY

- description:

In this programme the aims are:

     -  Review of the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder

     -  Bipolar Disorder ambulatory clinics (3 days/ week)

     -  Liaison Psychiatry (hospitalized patients, all medical units) – daily

     -  Ward round of Inpatient Acute Unit in the Psychiatric Department (once per week)

2. 

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

- description:

In this programme the aims are:

     - Attending the screening consultation and the multidisciplinary team meeting (doctors, psychologist, nurse and social worker)

     - Following-up patients in a Children and Adolescents Outpatient Unit

Travel information

- VISA needed: check with embassy
- travel and health insurance needed: Yes
- accommodation:
  with host: Yes (Oporto) / No (Amadora, Lisbon) / YES (Santarem)
- hospital residencies available: No
- other info:
    Hostels and Youth hostels:  Yes
    Affordable hotels:  Yes

Useful websites + miscellaneous

http://www.visitporto.travel/
http://microsites.juventude.gov.pt/Portal/pt/PLisboa.htm
http://www.lisbon-guide.info/accommodation/independent-youth-hostels
http://www.hoteis.pt/9456/Pousada-de-Juventude-Lisboa
www.visitportugal.com 
www.visitporto.travel/Visitar/Paginas/default.aspx
www.visitlisboa.com
www.cm-santarem.pt/



CONTACT:

  






   - Country coordinator, name and email:
     Vitor Pimenta
     malmaior@gmail.com

   - National trainee organization website:
     http://www.apipsiquiatria.pt