Practical guidelines for management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 hospitalized in a child and adolescent psychiatric ward

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic - in addition to its many widely described negative consequences - has created a challenge for the mental health care system in every country, including Poland to safely manage psychiatric disorders in addition to preventing and treating COVID-19. In Poland, online mental health services are provided for the outpatients. Still there are patients with severe psychiatric disorders who have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and need to be treated in a psychiatric hospital. The Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Medical University of Warsaw was appointed by local authorities to hospitalize children with mental disorders and with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. This created an urgent need to adapt our department for treating COVID-19 infected patients. As far as we know no guidelines for psychiatric hospitals management during the COVID-19 pandemic are available in English. In this manuscript, we present our guidelines regarding safe management of patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Medical University of Warsaw.