Psychiatric treatment occurs either at a mental hospital, the District Psychiatric Center (DPS), in the Municipal Service or privately. The trend in recent years has been to avoid institution if possible. Integration into the community has been the main objective. The Coordination Reform emphasises increasing responsibility on municipalities and correspondingly less on hospital and specialist health services.
The organisation and the framework for the psychiatry profession in the Norwegian healthcare system is regulated by the law on municipal health services, law on special health services, law...