- What's important about community care centers is that not only children are treated here, but entire families. This is another possibility that is important especially in large cities," said Health Minister Adam Niedzielski at the opening of the Mental Health Center for Children and Adolescents at 44 Goplańska Street in Warsaw. There are 360 such facilities nationwide. The health ministry promises to contract more.
Adam Niedzielski: Funding for child and adolescent psychiatry has exceeded one billion zlotys
Published March 28, 2023 11:42
fot. Piotr Wójcik
The community care centers are being established as part of the child and adolescent psychiatry reform that began in 2019. They operate at the first of three levels of reference.
- The essence of the reform we are carrying out is that in addition to the hospitals and wards where children are treated, we are also expanding the entire system of community care centers. At the moment there are already 360 such centers in Poland. We are trying to make sure that coverage in the country is even. We still have white spots, especially in the West Pomeranian province. We will want to fill them as soon as possible. A distinctive feature of support in community care centers is that not only children are treated here, but whole families. This is another possibility that is important, especially in large cities. We will be contracting more such centers. This means a huge increase in funding," said Adam Niedzielski.
As the Minister of Health reminded, in 2019 about 250 million zlotys was spent on child and adolescent psychiatry. Funding planned for this year has already increased to more than a billion zlotys.
- We will increase this budget with further reform steps. The establishment of community care is not the whole of what we are doing. We already have 130 second reference level centers, where there is access to a psychiatrist and day care is provided. There are also 32 specialized centers in the country, which are 24-hour hospital wards. Creating all three levels is already a huge undertaking. However, we are working to ensure that the operation of this system is consistent with pedagogical care, which is supervised by the Ministry of Education and Science, the health ministry head added.
The center on Goplanska Street in Warsaw, which is run by the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, provides assistance at the first and second reference levels. In total, it provides care for about 400 families. Ultimately, the number is expected to double.
- We have 40 patients in the day ward at the moment. Our patients, in addition to being taken care of psychologically, psychotherapeutically, also have the opportunity to participate in school, and this is very important. Coordinated assistance at all levels means that we can really help our patients," says Ewa Brzóska, head of the center.
Data released by the police shows that in 2022 alone, a total of 2031 suicide attempts by children and adolescents were recorded, 150 of which ended in death.
