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The new pandemic/ Mental health diseases are spreading rapidly among young Albanians

2023-06-07 22:30:18Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The new pandemic/ Mental health diseases are spreading rapidly among young
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Mental health risks becoming the new bomb of Albanian society. The recent case in Përmet, where a young man with mental health problems killed his mother, shows the risks that come to society. In this Wednesday's episode, "Inside Story" brings an investigation into the problems in dealing with this layer.

Even in Albania, although the figures are few and not updated, they show that the number of people with mental health problems has experienced a frightening increase.

Lost in the system, the foundations of mental health in Albania are being shaken. Clear proof is the numerous cases of people with mental health illnesses wandering the streets, but also the high number of suicides. Referring to INSTAT data, suicides are 3.5 times higher than murders.

More specifically, in 2021, 42 murders were recorded, but the number of suicides reached 218 cases. The highest number of suicides was recorded in 2016 with 225 cases. If we add to the figures 156 people who lost their lives as a result of mental illnesses throughout 2021, the burden of these illnesses becomes even heavier.

According to the WHO, suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals aged 15-29 and the third leading cause of death for individuals aged 15-44. Worldwide, approximately 800,000 people die each year due to suicide.

"Mental health problems have long since started to be at the top of the pyramid of health problems and need to be addressed in a creative but also persistent way," said psychiatrist Neli Demi.

Referring to the data collected from the primary system and summarized in a study carried out by UNFPA, mental health diseases have undergone a 57% increase. If in 2008 there were 780 people with mental health problems per 100 thousand inhabitants in the primary system registers, in 2018 this figure increased to 1222 people with mental health problems per 100 thousand inhabitants.

To understand the dramatic extent of this disease, let's refer to the only figures that are published on the website of the Institute of Public Health and that belong to the year 2015. These figures belong only to people who went to community centers and do not include hospitals psychiatric. During this year, approximately 50,000 people who requested help in the primary service were registered.

As you can see only in the three community centers of Tirana, in 2015 a total of about 20 thousand visits were made, of which 4 thousand were new cases. Also Shkodra has declared a high number of visits, with a total of 13 thousand followed by Korça with about 11 thousand visits.

The data for children and teenagers are also worrying. During 2015, about 4,000 visits were returned, but the most dramatic data is that over 5,000 teenagers end up with a clinical card. And this only in Tirana.

The situation has been getting worse since Covid opened a pandora's box of mental health illnesses.

Valentina Asabella, director of the community mental health center no. 3 in Tirana, says that during the years of the pandemic, the trend has undergone a great increase. This community center covers a population of about 380 thousand inhabitants, including Kamza.

According to her, there has been an increase either in the number of new patients or in the number of aggravated cases. But the biggest increase, which continues throughout the first months of this year, was recorded among children and teenagers. What makes it even more worrying is the number of new cases appearing throughout the year.

"The year 2022 has been a busy year for teenagers. About 2,000 visits, of which 1,300 new cases", said the director of the community mental health center, Valentina Asabella.

"During this year there is an even greater increase in teenagers, we have had a large increase in the number of children and teenagers during this period of 2023, where the abuse of substances, energy drinks, coffee or cigarettes has dominated," he said. Valentina Isabella.

If in 2017 around 700 teenagers and children sought help for mental health at this center, in 2021 the curve of those who sought help tripled, rising to 2300 children and teenagers.

Just like adults, children or teenagers suffer from major diagnoses to the most elementary ones.

In recent years, there has been an increase in patients with anxiety and stress disorders, depression, but about 20% of them suffer from the most serious mental health syndrome, which is schizophrenia or even bipolar disorders.

"The period of isolation and the pandemic has made young people turn to hashish, which they consider as salvation. In many cases when we advise them that they are harmful, we have encountered resistance, as they consider it a better solution than anxiolytics. Addiction to anxiolytics is also a separate disease that we treat, but addiction to hashish and narcotic substances is very serious and has much more serious consequences in a person's life," Valentina Asabella told Inside Story.

Are there signs that make us understand that children's mental health is becoming vulnerable? In parents, maximum care is required to detect problems in the first steps.

"In children, I would suggest that they be attentive, behavioral changes, tend to isolate themselves, do strange actions, unwilling to engage in activities that were previously of interest... the problem is online games, if during the pandemic we recommended to avoid isolation, now they are playing the opposite effect and should be avoided to avoid isolation", said director Valentina Asabella.

The WHO estimates that around 9 million children and young people in Europe live with some mental health disorder. In these conditions, the alarm becomes greater to watch out for this category. Experts warn that the mental health epidemic will be much longer and much more difficult than that of covid 19.

"It will be longer than the Covid pandemic because the psychological consequences may not appear immediately in their full form, but when they appear they need much more time than the pandemic itself," said Valentina Asabella.

Increasing numbers with mental health problems, national strategy and action plan still pending

The Ministry of Health, although it has been completed, has not yet launched the new mental health strategy, which will set milestones for how this important branch will proceed until 2030. Also, the 2023-2026 action plan has remained in the drawer. detailing the function of each structure.

Without transparency and immersed in silence, the monitoring structures of psychiatric hospitals are the National Committee of Mental Health, which is an advisory body to the Minister of Health, as well as the Ombudsman as an external monitor, through the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, Inhuman Treatment and Degrading.

However, the national committee has been almost non-existent, so apparently in the new strategy it will be reformed.

"We are at a very important moment for resizing for the national mental health committee. Why doesn't Albania have subcommittees dedicated to certain categories? For minors, for teenagers, for women, for people who are in conflict with the law", said the Director of the Institute for Activism and Social Change, Erinda Bllaca.

The only window that provides a picture of what happens in psychiatric hospitals is the annual monitoring of the "People's Advocate". And the reports published by the Advocate do not present an optimistic situation at all.

"Albania is a country that has a marked lack of services in the community, but also a lack of transparency. It is very difficult to find which door to knock on, and the relevant directorate in the Ministry of Health in the era of electronic services must have created a package of where a citizen should go, what he should address, what he should be careful of" , said Erinda Ballanca.

"Sadik Dinçi" Elbasan Psychiatric Hospital consists of 8 wards with a capacity of 310 beds, and two support lodges, one in Elbasan and one in Cërrik. But as the inspection by the People's Advocate proves for the umpteenth time, often the way patients are treated in psychiatric hospitals is a road of no return.

"We remain of the opinion that the hospital of Elbasan treats people in conditions not of medical negligence, but the first choice is to give doses of medicine and rehabilitation remains a significant challenge", said the ombudsman Erinda Ballanca.

This is the psychiatric hospital of Elbasan. For years, the Ministry of Health has declared that it will start the reconstruction, but it continues to offer this delicate service in unsuitable conditions. In this hospital, more than 50 people are permanent patients after being abandoned by their families. During the inspections, the People's Advocate found that 10 people are housed in one room in this hospital. Also, the isolation room and the means of force are not up to standards.

"They don't even guarantee those conditions that are guaranteed in the prison system, they must have 4m² per person... so they don't have protocols on how much space should be, which are minimum conditions guaranteed even in the prison system. Now you understand that the prison system and the health system must have important differences in the treatment of persons, because the expectations there to heal are very high", said Erinda Ballanca.

With limited capacities, the Albanian health system, instead of preventing, risks making patients with mental health problems contingent on psychiatric hospitals.

In all four psychiatric hospitals, the ombudsman has recommended the improvement of the conditions in the wards, heating, showers and toilets in order to offer the most dignified service to the people treated in the psychiatric hospitals. It is understood that under these conditions rehabilitation becomes difficult, since the necessary material basis for psycho-social staff is also missing.

"I have not seen an increase in the capacity of the shelters to serve as an intermediate part between the hospital and the exit to the community, I do not see effective substantive policies for the employment of these persons, enabling them to re-enter life through employment and then we find ourselves in situations not very suitable" - said lawyer Erinda Ballanca.

 


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