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Many children and young people are not doing well mentally – but help is difficult to get.
The Swiss healthcare system is on shaky ground: a lack of nurses, too few beds, more and more sick people, permanent overloading in emergencies. And that pulls a rat tail behind it. As a result, medical institutions that take care of mental health are also affected.
“Of course we are also affected by the shortage of skilled workers, primarily in nursing,” says Marc Stutz, media spokesman for the Psychiatric University Clinic in Zurich. “As a result, positions can often be filled less quickly.”
Lack of medication leads to more mental relapses
In addition to the shortage of skilled workers, the hospital crisis also has direct consequences: Patients are referred from hospitals to psychiatric institutions as quickly as possible if certain conditions are met – such as drug abuse or suicide attempts. “Since the emergency rooms in the hospitals are often overloaded, the patients are quickly passed on to other structures,” says clinic director Lorenzo Folini (35) from the Santa Croce private clinic in Orselina TI, “Victims of drug abuse, for example, always end up in our psychiatric ward. »
A lack of medication also leads to more hospital stays. “There are patients who have to be hospitalized in a psychiatric facility because a certain drug is not available,” explains Jochen Mutschler, chief physician for inpatient services at Lucerne Psychiatry. For example, there is a lack of Antabuse – a drug to prevent relapses in alcohol abuse.
Long waiting times for outpatient therapies
“We feel that the pressure to admit is increasing in our three clinics,” says Mutschler. The number of sick people is increasing. “One point is the destigmatization of the various mental illnesses, which leads to an increased demand. Secondly, the population growth is also noticeable here, and thirdly, there have been more depressions and anxiety disorders worldwide since Corona. We’re talking about a 25 percent increase.” The result: “We have a strong demand for outpatient therapies and at the same time are well utilized inpatient.”
For outpatient therapy offers, those affected sometimes have to search far before they find a therapist. According to Mutschler, in Central Switzerland there are sometimes such long waiting times for outpatients that their illness has even become chronic. After all: “We have never had to turn away acute patients who posed a threat to others or themselves.”
There are no places for children and young people
However, a lack of beds is not yet a problem in Switzerland, says Erich Seifritz, President of the Swiss Mental Healthcare Association. “Switzerland has the highest density of specialists in psychiatry and psychotherapy and has an excellent care situation for mental illnesses.”
Nevertheless, there are areas in which the care of mental illnesses should be improved, says Seifritz. “This generally affects rural regions, children and young people, and patients with severe complex mental illnesses.” In the area of children and young people, more stationary capacities are currently being created.
“The less severe cases had to wait a long time”
Alain Di Gallo, chief physician for children and adolescents at the University Psychiatric Clinics in Basel, says to Blick: “Thoughts of suicide among adolescents have increased during the pandemic.” As a result, the demand for psychiatric services has increased massively since 2020. “Across Switzerland, we were only able to treat emergencies and children and young people in serious crises immediately. The less severe cases had to wait a long time. This undersupply was already known before the pandemic, but it has now worsened.”
After all: Individual cantons have spoken money for children and young people. “In some cases we were able to create more offers, and some clinics have moderately increased their staff. But many practices are still not accepting new patients, leading to an ongoing rush.”