Mental health, more children's disorders but neuropsychiatrists are missing

(ANSA) - ROME, DECEMBER 14 - The "worrying increase in neurological and psychiatric disorders in childhood" continues.

But, in the face of this, "in the next two-three years, the shortage of child neuropsychiatrists will be dramatic".

To stem it "we need at least 400 new grants a year to train specialists" necessary to support the growing need for assistance and the reduction of doctors due to retirement.

The alarm was sounded by the Society of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry (Sinpia) on the occasion of the first National Conference of Child Neuropsychiatry Residents, scheduled in Brescia on 16-17 December.

    "The protection of the neuropsychic development and mental health of the new generations is an absolute priority, now dramatic from the consequences of the pandemic", explains Elisa Fazzi, president of Sinpia and director of the Neuropsychiatry Unit of Childhood and Adolescence ASST Spedali Civil and University of Brescia.

The increase in annual specialization contracts in child neuropsychiatry has gone from 99 places in 2018 to the current 283, but "they are not yet sufficient. We ask - he continues - that university programming does not leave this discipline without resources", which deals with many conditions, from autism to attention and learning disorders, from childhood epilepsy and cerebral palsy to depression, psychosis and addictions in minors.

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In the next two-three years, the shortage of child psychiatrists", Fazzi denounces, "will be dramatic and the vacancies will not be filled.

Services and structures for minors, already seriously undersized, will be unable to provide the necessary assistance".

    However, there is also a shortage of beds in pediatric neuropsychiatry: "to date only 395 compared to a need of at least 700", explains Antonella Costantino, director of the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Unit of the Irccs Ca' Granda Foundation of the Policlinico from Milan.

"And even more - he concludes - are the critical issues in local services that urgently need to be strengthened".

(HANDLE).