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High time for changes?

Barbara Remberk

Affiliacja i adres do korespondencji
Psychiatr Psychol Klin 2017, 17 (4), p. 256–259
DOI: 10.15557/PiPK.2017.0029
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Streszczenie

The paper discusses the organisation of psychological and psychiatric care for children and adolescents, and proposes certain changes. Areas requiring particular attention include: universal and selective prevention, effective screening for early detection of mental disorders as well as efficient specialist healthcare system. Universal prevention refers to the entire population but despite a range of undertaken actions, there are no systemic solutions. A similar difficulty is associated with screening. Rapid psychological assistance for children is essential for effective prevention and/or early intervention. This concerns both children from the general population and from risk groups, such as wards of juvenile sociotherapeutic and educational centres or foster care facilities. Specialist care is yet another level. It is currently believed that support and treatment should be delivered mainly in the patient’s community. The proposed elements of specialist healthcare system include community centres for psychological assistance, community psychiatric centres for children and adolescents as well as specialist mental health centres for children and adolescents. The last mentioned centres should be open for emergency psychiatric consultation and inpatient treatment all day and night. The current system of psychiatric and psychological healthcare is capable of helping only a slight percentage of children and adolescents. Changes are essential, and therefore a panel of experts and the Ministry of Health have initiated works to develop more effective solutions.

Słowa kluczowe
child and adolescent psychiatry, specialist care, community psychiatry