“Action instead of waiting,” said Barbara Haid, President of the Federal Association for Psychotherapy (ÖBVP), on Wednesday at a press conference on the mental health of children and young people. For many, starting school means pressure and stress, but also acute psychological problems. Of the approximately 1.7 million people under the age of 20 in Austria, 1.1 million attend school. Currently, only 181 school psychologists are available to them. One in five students (24 percent) was already struggling with mental health problems before the pandemic broke out. Sometimes they had to wait months for treatment places, and there are month-long waiting lists, especially for patients with statutory health insurance.
Together with the Austrian League for Child and Adolescent Health (Children’s League) and the Austrian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ÖGKJP), Haid expressed concern about the mental health of young people. Far too few low-threshold offers in school are among the major challenges for psychosocial care. One demand is to expand psychosocial care for students, parents and teaching staff – and to ensure it in the long term. Every second young person in Austria now suffers from depressive symptoms. Suicidal thoughts, anxiety symptoms, sleep disorders and problematic consumer behavior have increased sharply. 47 percent of all young people surveyed stated that they needed professional support.
Basically, the psychological and psychiatric care in Austria is insufficient and, above all, low-threshold, health insurance-financed offers are in short supply, criticized Caroline Culen, clinical psychologist and managing director of the Austrian Children’s League.
Source: Nachrichten
