- Tíðindi, mentan og ítróttur
Kids are “made out to be sicker than they are”
The number of children referred for psychiatric assessment almost doubled from 2019 to 2020, going from 183 in 2019 to 306 in 2020.
“This is a clear sign of systemic problems in our system. It is obviously not true that the number of Faroese children suffering from mental problems has doubled in one year,” says Tórmóður Stórá, the chief psychiatrist at the National Hospital.
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Although waiting lists for psychiatric treatment for children and youths were also long ten years ago, a fundamental difference has appeared in the past few years.
“Far too many children are being referred to psychiatric assessment,” he says. “Many of them would probably be better served elsewhere in the system.”
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He outlines the systemic problem as follows:
Knowing that early intervention is crucial for children’s mental health, many parents of struggling children turn to institutions such as the Social Services, the child welfare authorities or special education authorities for help.
The parents are usually asked to describe the child’s condition. “We don’t know, but our child is experiencing certain problems at school,” is a common response.
The institution usually says they cannot help until the child has been given a diagnosis, and the child is consequently put on an ever-growing waiting list for psychiatric assessment.
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“This creates a vicious circle in which the number of referrals for psychiatric assessment spirals out of control.”
An unfortunate consequence of this, he says, is that those who really need psychiatric help are left to suffer on their own because they are stuck on a waiting list that is far too long.
“In a way, you could say that the system is portraying many children as being sicker than they actually are.”
Read the Faroese version of this article here.
Translated by prosa.fo.
