Mental health required as a school subject
The director of the University Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Hall and Innsbruck argued that such a school subject is urgently needed not only because of the approaching start of school, which means additional psychological stress, but also because of the consequences of the corona pandemic and the lockdown. This gives children and young people better tools for mental illnesses and symptoms and lowers the inhibition threshold for the initial search for help.
“The acute admissions to the department for child and adolescent psychiatry increased by around 40 percent in 2021 compared to 2019,” Sevecke referred to a study she led.
Current issues as an additional burden
Sevecke does not reduce this development to possible school stress, home schooling or isolation in Corona times alone. “The proportion of girls rose to 74.4 percent in 2021,” reported the President of the Austrian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. “But girls are generally more sensitive during adolescence,” says Sevecke. The expert emphasized that there was also emotional and psychological pressure, for example from role models or ideals of beauty.
Nevertheless, Corona naturally increases this pressure. “Online consumption has clearly increased and with it the discussion of such topics in social networks,” she said. It is also problematic that new crises are currently emerging. “There are currently also issues such as the economic crisis, climate crisis and war, which also burden young people and children,” she emphasized. In view of the previous figures, this is not a good development, because during the corona pandemic, acute suicidality in this age group could have been assumed to be 48.3 percent.
Patients and families are visited at home
In any case, these tendencies would have to be counteracted with at least increased care capacities. “We currently have 93 people on the waiting list in Halle,” she reported on the current situation. Nevertheless, one does not want to “add a floor to the existing stations”, but instead rely on models such as “home treatment”.
This “home care”, in which nurses, psychologists and specialist therapists visit the patients and their families in turn, would have clear advantages: “If possible, patients may not go to the clinic at all or can be discharged home earlier”. It is now a matter of clarifying the legal issues and the creative will and goodwill of the Tyrolean state government, according to Sevecke.