University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče

University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče in Zagreb is Croatia’s largest and oldest psychiatric institution, with 146 years of history and tradition, and the country’s only purpose-built hospital originally designed specifically for psychiatric care.

After two years of construction, the hospital opened on 15 November 1879. It was planned for around 300 patients, but numbers quickly increased, and capacity expanded to over 1,000 beds—at one point reaching 1,500.

To date, more than 150,000 people have been treated at Vrapče, always in line with the contemporary development of psychiatric practice. Today, the Hospital provides state-of-the-art care, including pharmacotherapy, a range of psychotherapies, sociotherapy, and occupational and work-based therapies.

Vrapče has long treated—and continues to treat—the most severe and complex psychiatric cases. It is equipped to care for all patient groups, including forensic psychiatry, and receives the most demanding cases from across Croatia.

As a key institution since the beginnings of Croatian psychiatry, Vrapče has played a central role in shaping psychiatric practice in the country. The Hospital currently has 650 beds across 11 clinical departments, and alongside outpatient services it has been rapidly expanding day hospitals in recent years, offering specialised programmes for specific patient groups.

The AACI Accreditation Commission (American Accreditation Commission International) issued a decision on 27 June 2023 granting accreditation status to the University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, thereby confirming that the Hospital is accredited in accordance with international accreditation standards.

In addition, the University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče has been awarded the ISO 9001:2015 certificate, valid for the provision of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services.

University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče was, from the very beginning, envisioned—as quoted—“not only as a place of treatment and care, but also as a place of learning.” Today, the Hospital therefore has a modern education centre with versatile multimedia halls and classrooms where training is delivered for all professional profiles working in (or preparing to work in) psychiatry, as well as a rich specialised library and a modern archive. A strong and efficient IT infrastructure (the Hospital is a member of CARNET) enables distributed network access to both commercial and open-access databases for all members of the Hospital’s scientific and research community (researchers, lecturers, residents, and students). Through this infrastructure, the Hospital is also able to connect via teleconferencing with any comparable education centre worldwide.

Today, the Hospital and its Clinic serve as a teaching base for:

• School of Medicine – Psychiatry course

• Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences – two courses:

  • General Psychopathology

  • Forensic Psychiatry

• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences – Psychology programme:

  • Psychopathology

  • Sleep Psychophysiology

• Faculty of Law – Department of Social Work:

  • Social Psychiatry

• Croatian Studies:

  • Forensic Psychiatry