2025 Volume 37 Issue 4 Pages 320-325
Departments of psychiatry at university hospitals fulfill three core functions―providing clinical care, delivering education and conducting research―while occupying a distinctive position within regional mental health systems. This paper analyses the expected roles and current challenges of such institutions by examining the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Kumamoto University Hospital, where the author previously worked. In Kumamoto Prefecture, psychiatric resources are heavily concentrated in the Kumamoto City area, where specialized psychiatric hospitals play a central role. As the only university hospital in the prefecture with a psychiatry department, Kumamoto University Hospital provides a wide range of services, including neuromodulation therapies, integrated care for psychiatric and physical comorbidities, dementia treatment, and child and adolescent psychiatry. However, severe workforce shortages prevent the department from fulfilling these responsibilities. This issue reflects a nationwide trend, suggesting that fundamental reforms are required. Potential measures include introducing clearer divisions of labor between clinical, educational and research functions, improving the efficiency of inpatient bed management and renewing regional collaboration frameworks. Ultimately, ensuring the sustainability of university hospital psychiatry will require moving beyond the traditional medical faculty system and establishing new community-based cooperation models.
