The number of children who require mental health intervention is on the rise here in Czechia. Forty percent of ninth graders show moderate signs of depression, and last year data from the Institute of Health indicated that there were over 4,000 hospitalizations of patients under the age of 19 in acute beds, almost twice as many as 10 years ago. Jana Karasová, a reporter with iRozhlas.cz who has covered this story, explained the situation to me
“For a long time, we have known that in the Czech Republic there is a shortage of psychiatrists, but what has happened in the last few years, is that there has been an increase in patient numbers, especially when it comes to teenagers and children. Finally, this year we have the first survey of the well-being of ninth graders, and it proved that every third teenager or ninth grader would benefit from professional support or help, and that 40 percent of them have signs of depression or anxiety.
“When it comes to the numbers of psychiatrists in hospitals but also in ordinary care, there are new numbers released by the office of Czech health information. It counts not only the number of every individual doctor, but also how these doctors are employed. Even though we see that there could be about 150 doctors focussed on psychology for children and teenagers, when we look at the employment numbers, there are only about 74 of them.”
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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt