A new priority in psychiatry: Focused services for adolescents

Abstract

Finland was the first European country to give a high priority to the development of specialized psychiatric services for adolescents. The aim of this paper is to 1) describe the development of these services, 2) study the status and the functioning of psychiatric services for adolescents in 2000 and 3) present some future challenges. The data have been collected from the social welfare register, from a questionnaire sent to Health Districts and via telephone interviews. In addition, the functioning of the treatment system has been studied in detail in one Health District by means of interviews and questionnaires. The general targets set in 1987 giving national priority to focused psychiatric services for adolescents were mostly reached in 2000, and resources for adolescents have increased markedly. In spite of this, minors still have to be treated in adult psychiatric wards. Many problems were detected in the functioning of the chains of treatment for adolescents. The differentiation between primary and secondary care was unclear. Primary care had a limited capacity in the early detection of mental disorders in adolescents. The services for adolescents were broken down into small units. Furthermore, there were no comprehensive future plans. The need for specialized psychiatric services for adolescents is evident. In addition to developing adequate resources, the quality of care should also be guaranteed by training and by competent long-term planning of psychiatric service systems.

A brief intervention is sufficient for many adolescents seeking help from low threshold adolescent psychiatric services

“…The roles of primary care and secondary care services in treating adolescent psychiatric problems are often unclear [8,9,12,13], leading to delays in referring youths for psychiatric evaluation. Furthermore, the threshold for a referral to psychiatric services seems high for adolescents [14]. …”

“…There has been a considerable increase in the need for psychiatric services for adolescents in Finland [14]. In order to develop and improve the health care system for adolescents who have psychosocial problems, two Finnish Health Districts in three regions (Kuopio with a population of 90 000, Lappeenranta with a population of 59 000 and Imatra with a population of 30 000) started a development project entitled SCREEN intervention (SIHTI in Finnish).…”

Towards understanding gender differences in disordered eating among adolescents

“…School nurses, who perform regular health examinations on all students, are in a prime position to detect adolescents’ problems with eating and weight. In fact, the majority of adolescents receiving therapy for an ED were referred for treatment by their school nurses (Laukkanen et al. 2003).…”

Psychopathology and functional impairment among patients attending an adolescent health clinic: Implications for healthcare model reform

“…Psychopathology in adolescents has the potential to result in considerable functional impairment, frequently persists into adulthood, and can generate a large social burden if not identified and treated early. Despite these intimidating numbers and burden related to morbidity, the mental health needs of adolescents are ignored largely because the available services are inadequate [ 3 ].…”