Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy opens

On 1 July, Chemnitz Hospital opened the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at its Dresdner Straße site, headed by Chief Physician Dr Maria Lenk, MD, DDS. With this new department, the hospital is expanding its range of treatments and addressing a significant gap in healthcare provision in Chemnitz and the surrounding area, where psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy have so far only been available on an ad hoc basis.

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To promote physical and mental health, the new clinic will work closely with the hospital’s somatic and psychiatric departments, thereby strengthening the interdisciplinary treatment of complex clinical conditions.

“Psychosomatic medicine sees itself as a bridge between the body, the mind and one’s life circumstances. Particularly in an era of highly specialised and organ-focused medicine, some patients find it difficult to bring these levels together to form a holistic understanding of their condition and the ways in which they can influence it,” says the new Head of Department, Dr Lenk. Psychosomatic medicine supports people with primarily mental health conditions as well as
people who have found themselves in crisis as a result of physical illnesses or stressful life changes. It also sees itself as a form of relationship-based medicine that helps patients cope with difficult life situations and supports them in regaining new perspectives, options for action and freedom in shaping their own lives.

The new Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine treats a wide range of conditions – for example,
from anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and depressive disorders right through to somatic complaints. The range of treatments will be developed gradually and will initially comprise outpatient and day-clinic therapy services. This will be followed by
inpatient care facilities.

The new clinic aims not only to strengthen current care provision but also to foster the next generation of doctors specialising in psychosomatic medicine
and thereby establish this specialism – which has hitherto been scarcely represented in the region – on a sustainable basis in Chemnitz. For students on the MEDiC model degree programme in human medicine, it will in future open up opportunities for teaching, clinical placements, specialist training, as well as PhD and research projects on site. This will lay an important foundation for the long-term strengthening of regional inpatient and outpatient
psychosomatic care.

Dr Maria Lenk, MD, DDS, is a specialist in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy as well as a dentist, and is returning to her home town of Chemnitz after more than ten years of clinical, academic and teaching work at the Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at Dresden University Hospital. Most recently, she headed the Day Clinic for Somatoform Disorders as well as the research and treatment unit ‘Psychosomatic Disorders in Dentistry’. With her dual qualifications, she combines psychosomatic, medical and dental perspectives in care, research and training.

A press release from Chemnitz University Hospital.