Warn pediatrician
Triage in psychiatric hospitals
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Not only adults suffer psychologically from the corona pandemic, children and adolescents are also affected. Pediatricians are now issuing a warning because the psychiatric clinics are already full – this leads to triage.
Most of life is at home and contacts are limited – this can affect our mental health. Many adults as well as children and adolescents are mentally struggling with the pandemic. The full psychiatric hospitals speak a clear language. Can the numerous patients be accommodated inside? In this regard, pediatricians are now warning: Doctors are forced to decide who can be treated at all. The professional association of paediatricians (BVKJ) holds politics responsible for this triage.
Mental hospitals are overburdened
The BVKJ sharply criticized the political neglect of children and young people during the pandemic. School and daycare closings were still justifiable at the beginning of the corona pandemic. In the meantime, however, it has been found that children are less likely to contract the virus and are significantly less involved in the transmission.
As a result of the closings and lockdowns, children have less exercise and lack of social exchange. This is not without consequences: “There are psychiatric illnesses to an extent that we have never experienced before. The child and adolescent psychiatric clinics are full, there is triage. Those who are not suicidal and ‘only’ have depression will not recorded at all, “says BVKJ spokesman Jakob Maske to the” Rheinische Post “.
Fast school openings required
The German Teachers’ Association advocates a return to face-to-face teaching from an incidence of 50. Pediatricians go one step further: They demand that daycare centers and schools open quickly. The applicable guidelines should be adhered to and “appropriate testing” should be carried out, says Jörg Dötsch, President of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ).
According to him, the openings should not be made dependent on the vaccinations. “It is absolutely necessary, even if young people in the higher grades can be vaccinated, to enable children of elementary school age, but also in middle grades, to have a normal social life again so that they can develop normally,” said Dötsch.
Sources used: Rheinische Post, ZDF.de