Mental health and health care innovation

What about the mental health of young people?

The needs seem enormous. Psychiatric wards are very overloaded. The psychiatric ward headed by Prof. Tomasz Wolańczyk at the USK WUM has more than 40 patients admitted for 20 beds.

"The topic of mental health used to be in fifth place from the point of view of the problems reported by children who contacted the 116 111 Helpline. Now this topic appears most often in children's statements." - stressed Renata Szredzińska, president of the foundation Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę.

Prof. Tomasz Wolańczyk acknowledged that "the Give Children Strength Foundation is one of the few organizations that tries to change the causes, not alleviate the symptoms. That's the most important thing we need to address now, which is prevention, because that's the only way to reduce the overload of psychiatric hospitals."

It is not psychiatric care that is responsible for the difficulties young people face. Living in a world focused on competition rather than cooperation is not easy. Family relationships put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficult economic situation, high school demands and a peer environment that accompanies children 24/7 through the presence of social media can severely experience the mental toughness of children and adolescents. Lukasz Boguslawski, an influencer and participant in the Top Model program, pointed out the challenges of a constant social media presence and stressed that social media often provides us with an idealized, unrealistic image, thus distorting our perception of reality.

Where can young people seek help?

Damian Marciniak, director of the Department of Mental Health at the Office of the Patient Ombudsman, pointed out that "young people often don't know what kind of help they could use, so they usually seek support from their peer group. So we need to prepare them to support each other."

Young people don't know where they can seek help because no one teaches them. Experts unanimously agreed that the subject of health knowledge introduced in elementary schools would be an ideal platform to teach children how the system works and how to navigate through it.

"We have psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, crisis interveners, but our navigator in the system of specialists can be the PCP," said Adrianna Sobol, M. D., of the Department of Oncology Propedeutics at WUM.

As Barbara Remberk, MD, from the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, stressed, "psychiatrists are responsible for tailoring pharmacotherapy that works on the symptoms of mental health disorders, while it is not always the only treatment option."

As Agata Stola, M.D., of the Splot Institute added, "most often, however, patients are treated with both pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, which works on the causes of their condition instead."

"Help can be obtained in public facilities, private therapeutic centers or take advantage of the offer of non-governmental organizations that meet the needs of patients by providing services at competitive prices, so that an even larger group of people can benefit from help," said Agata Ukleja of the Non-Divided Foundation.

When we don't know who to go to with our problem to get the right help, we can always use the free, anonymous Helplines -. "At the Children's Ombudsman Helpline 800 12 12 12, experts in the fields of law, social affairs, education and upbringing, and health care are on duty, who are willing to listen and suggest further steps," - says Katarzyna Skrętowska-Szyszko, Director of the Social Affairs Team at the Children's Ombudsman's Office.

Treatment with treatment and what about prevention?

Minister Ursula Demkow stressed that "training a cadre of psychiatrists is a long-term process, so in the current situation it is necessary to make the most of the potential lying in health promotion and public health graduates, so as to ensure that the mental health of young people is strengthened." In addition, the Minister noted that the topic of mental health is one of the priorities of the current government.

It is not only central offices that provide prevention services, as this mainly rests on the shoulders of local government units, plus NGOs have been supporting these activities for years, providing innovative educational programs.

"As the Mother and Child Institute Foundation, we run the Heads Up project, which is an innovative initiative responding to the current challenges of depression and poor mental health in children and adolescents and its goal is to create tools for teachers to work with students with mental health problems," said Dr. Dorota Kleszczewska, President of the Mother and Child Institute Foundation in Warsaw.

"As part of the UNAWEZA Foundation, we are running the "Hour for YOUNG HEADS" project , which aims to support children and adolescents, as well as male and female teachers in activities in the area of mental health prevention, which will be conducted during the school year according to eight developed scenarios. We believe that a school can be a place that teaches Mental Health First Aid, it just requires support with a simple and easy-to-implement tool," says Justyna Żukowska-Gołębiewska, MA, project coordinator.

Dr. Marlena Stradowska of the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin also talked about the outreach activities of the service Life is Worth Talking About, which is "a place where help can be obtained both by people in suicide crisis and those seeking support for someone experiencing mental difficulties or mourning the suicidal death of a loved one."

Mental health is also an important topic from the perspective of employers - "what resources a young person enters the labor market with will determine his or her effectiveness, so more and more employers are taking additional initiatives in this area, being aware that this is an investment that will reduce the cost of absenteeism or presenteeism in the future," said Aleksandra Sienkiewicz of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

What's next for mental health?

We are at the stage in Poland of dispelling myths and raising public awareness about psychological help or psychiatric treatment.

"Currently, the National Mental Health Program for 2023-2030 is being implemented in Poland, and in addition, Operational Objective 3 of the National Health Program deals with the prevention of mental health disorders. Within the framework of this program, the National Program for the Prevention of Suicidal Behavior is also being implemented for the first time. It can be seen that the topic has already been recognized in Polish health policy," listed Dr. Daria Biechowska, director of the Department of Public Health at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw.

In addition, a reform of Polish psychiatry has been underway for several years. As the national consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry, Dr. Aleksandra Lewandowska, points out, "You can reform something that exists, while in our country, developmental-age community care did not function. Coordination and comprehensiveness were not functioning. We are building this model composed of three reference levels from scratch."

Minister Paulina Piechna - Więckiewicz stressed that "we are meeting one day after a breakthrough event - the tripartite declaration of inter-ministerial cooperation for the mental health of young people. From now on, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy have a common goal, and this approach is a breakthrough that was expected from the government. As a first step, we see that it will be necessary to work out a pattern of conduct when a student returns to school after being dismissed due to mental health problems, in order to minimize exposure to exclusion of that person from his or her peer group."

Better quality of healthcare through new technologies   

The second day of the event included discussions on innovations in health promotion and medicine. Anna Sibilska-Mroziewicz, Ph.D., together with students from the Warsaw University of Technology, presented a project to use VR goggles for rehabilitation of the elderly after stroke, and Dominik Baraniecki, M.Sc., talked about innovative initiatives in the field of printed electronics, such as insoles with pressure measurement, an electronic tattoo for monitoring parameters from sweat, and a smart bandage called SmartHEAL, which are being developed with the Center for Advanced Materials and Technologies Cezamat of the Warsaw University of Technology.

As Justyna Mieszalska, president of the Medical Center of Warsaw Medical University, pointed out, "more than 6% of Polish hospitals and 35% of Polish start-ups are using artificial intelligence, and in Polish medical facilities the investment in AI has recently increased from 35 to 46%."

Medicine, however, is a failure of prevention, but implementing new technologies for prevention can prove to be quite a challenge. Karolina Kryszkiewicz of the Medicover Foundation used an example in the field of school medicine, where the basic problem is not only unequal access to new technologies in smaller towns, but also data protection issues prove problematic.

Artificial intelligence is finding fantastic applications in the diagnostic process, improving
accuracy and time to diagnosis.

"Modern diagnostic solutions have made it possible to significantly reduce the time it takes to perform tests such as MRIs and CT scans from 25 minutes to max. 10 minutes, additionally significantly reducing radiation levels," said Piotr Kuskowski, director of marketing and strategy at Siemens Healthineers Ltd.

The development of modern tools is linked to the development of telecommunications, including 5G. Meanwhile, one in two Poles expresses concern about the potential health impact of 5G technology. Where does this medicine come from in us?

"People are very susceptible to sensational information, and this is the kind of information that spreads the fastest. Reliable research does not receive as much attention, and looking at social media sites, it is clear that there are groups of people who carry out very aggressive communications aimed at misinformation, both in the case of vaccines and the development of telecommunications solutions. We need to provide reliable information to educate such people and for there to be more content backed by theses of independent scientific studies." - commented Prof. Andrzej Krawczyk, president of the Polish Society for Electromagnetism Applications.

The event was accompanied by a student session, in which, of the five works presented, the winning project was by nursing students at Warsaw Medical University Aleksandra Janczak and Magdalena Zawalich, who presented the use of modern technology in health education and improving the mental health of a pediatric patient diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The event was organized by students affiliated with the Student Scientific Circle of Public Health at the Medical University of Warsaw. The Healthy Engaged Citizens Foundation was the social partner of the event.

Source: press mat.