In Klecany, the construction of the National Institute of Mental Health has begun

Klecany (near Prague) - Construction of the National Institute of Mental Health began today in Klecany near Prague, which is intended to become one of the pillars of the reform of psychiatric care in the Czech Republic. The costs for building the complex amount to approximately 370 million crowns, and the total budget for the project, including equipment and the first year of operation, is 971 million CZK. The construction will be financed from the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation and 15 percent from the state budget, said the economic deputy director of the institute, Alexandr Borovička, to ČTK after the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone.
    The Psychiatric Center Prague will move into the new premises, with its current number of employees more than doubling. According to Borovička, 300 people will work there from January 2015 when the institute is expected to start operations. Some scientific workers and laboratory technicians will find new employment in Klecany.
    The National Institute should function both as a scientific facility and as a clinic. It will include hospital departments with 60 beds, day care centers, a memory disorder clinic, and specialized outpatient clinics. According to the head of the institute, Cyril Höschl, the focus of care should not be in the inpatient part. "The trend is not to expand beds, but rather to shift care towards the patient's residence or community care," he noted.
    Specialists in Klecany will focus on research and development programs, such as research on the neurobiology of mental disorders, the neurobiology of aging and dementia, examining the biological basis of addiction, epidemiology of mental disorders, treatment and research of sleep disorders and biological rhythms, and more.
    According to Höschl, about a third of the invested 971 million should go to the first year of operation, and it is uncertain how the institute will function once the subsidies are depleted. "We are concerned about this because unfortunately, lately, the state has been treating research institutions of this type increasingly harshly and believes that they will somehow sustain themselves," he remarked. According to him, research projects can sustain themselves, but the operation of the building cannot be covered by grants. In other countries, institutional funding from university or state funds is common, according to Höschl. "If nothing changes in this area, the entire new building could end up being scrapped," Höschl warned.
    Last year, he pointed out that the project is nearly two years behind schedule due to changes at the Ministry of Education. Experts have long maintained that despite the increasing number of patients with mental health issues, depression, or Alzheimer's disease, psychiatry in the Czech Republic remains on the periphery of interest.
    Complications also arose earlier this year when a tender for construction suppliers was announced. "After the amendment of the public procurement law, it turned out that projects over 200 million, which are financed this way, must be approved by the government," Borovička stated. However, the cabinet was not prepared for this, and the approval took two months, as did the formation of the expert committee with security clearance to assess the project.
    According to the World Health Organization, the focus of care is to shift from psychiatric hospitals to community and acute care, which experts say are underdeveloped in the Czech Republic. Therefore, the Ministry of Health wants to allocate four billion of the six billion crowns that the Czech Republic can receive from the EU over the next six years for the reform of psychiatric care to the modernization of hospitals and psychiatric clinics and for the establishment of community centers. Additional funds are to be directed towards training healthcare professionals and a campaign to destigmatize psychiatry.