Deterioration in mental health is a concern in adults, but also, and especially, in minors. And the numbers confirm it. Almost 250 children and adolescents (249) have been treated by the emergency department of the hospitalization plant of the Child and Adolescent Health Area of ??the Vall d’Hebron hospital in Barcelona – which is an average of three emergencies per day – since it was launched on 12 April. In these three months, in addition, 41 patients have ended up admitted there, the majority for suicide attempts. The youngest patient who has been through the emergency room was only four years old, while the average patient profile is a 14-15-year-old girl with autolytic ideation.
“This unit was a historic duty of the hospital, because there was no admission unit for childhood and adolescence in psychiatry”, explained yesterday at the press conference that served to present the mental health plant of Health of the Generalitat, Manel Balcells.
The head of the Psychiatry service, Dr. Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga, indicated that any mental disorder of a severity “that does not allow for community management”, such as suicidal ideation, behavioral changes or some eating disorders , they may end up requiring admission, whose average hospitalization is 10 days. However, there are patients who need more or less.
This is the case of 17-year-old Claudia, who became the plant’s first patient in April. This young woman, present at the presentation of the service, was admitted there for a month and said that at the age of 15 she was already hospitalized in Sant Joan de Déu for anorexia, and at 17, in Vall d’Hebron for depression. “When you leave a place like this you always feel like you’re better, but over time you realize you’re not quite getting better and you relapse, and I ended up here as the first patient, and I can’t do anything but thank you , because it was during this admission that I realized that I could improve and that I had inner strength”, added Claudia.
“The majority of cases we treat are self-harm or attempted suicide”, said Dr. Marc Ferrer, Head of Hospitalization of the Psychiatry Service. Ferrer assured that these behaviors are “on the rise and we need to respond to them”, but they were already visible before the pandemic. If in 2015 and 2017 self-harm represented 20.4% of admissions to psychiatric emergencies, now it is 75%. Despite this, the psychiatrist explained that more than a planned idea of ??suicide, it is often an “impulsive and poorly calculated behavior that seeks disconnection”.
Sometimes admission is ordered not so much because of the seriousness of the situation, but because it is considered that they will not be able to do “adequate containment” from home, emphasized Ramos-Quiroga, who pointed out that, despite the fact that in the summer less income is produced, they estimate that by the end of the year the unit will have had close to 180 patients hospitalized.
The opening of this service, together with others, such as that of Can Ruti, has meant the disappearance of waiting lists for admissions in acute cases, assured Ramos-Quiroga. The unit has eight beds for a population of 80,000 children and young people from Nou Barris, Sant Andreu and Horta-Guinardó. “Twelve of the eighteen neighborhoods with the most disadvantaged socio-economic indicators”, pointed out Balcells.
The idea, remarked Marc Ferrer, is to prioritize work in the community, but psychopathological problems sometimes require hospitalization “due to severity or to carry out a specific treatment”. For this reason, the idea and the desire is for them to be as short as possible.
In addition to self-harm, social media addictions and eating disorders, the unit has also treated autism spectrum disorders, as well as some psychotic disorders.