The primary medical assistance experiences a shortage of child psychiatrists and of other kinds of medical staff, primarily in rural areas. The patients’ access to community centers is difficult as some of the localities are situated geographically far away. There is insufficient correct information about where and with what problems the families with children with mental or behavioral disorders can go. There are also no legal regulations about the activity of psychologists, shows a thematic report on the observance of the rights of children with mental disorders that was presented in a news conference hosted by IPN.
Maia Bănărescu, ombudswoman for children’s rights, said the primary and specialized ambulatory medicine is the first health system stage that comes into contact with the children and their parents. That’s why the access to primary medical assistance was extensively analyzed. “The social assistant plays a rather important role in the intersectoral cooperation mechanism and should be present in the community. We talked a lot about the human rights specialist that would focus on the observance of children’s rights, but this is not yet present in the children’s rights protection system. The social assistant has a lot of duties, but the duties concerning the examination and monitoring of the case of a child with mental or behavioral disorders are not clear,” stated the ombudswoman for children’s rights.
According to Maia Bănărescu, as there are many patients, the family doctors do not manage to cope with the flux and to offer the patients information about the steps that need to be taken when they see atypical development in the child. There is no methodology concerning the complex treatment of the situation of the child with mental disorders. Not all the centers have the equipment needed to ensure the activities required for psychosocial rehabilitation.
In pediatric psychology in Moldova, there are serious problems that need to be dealt with. There are no minimum quality standards for stationary psychiatric medical services for children, adjusted to their needs. The children are hospitalized based on referral from the ambulatory psychiatrist, which does not specify the measures taken in the community center to avoid hospitalization. The opinion of the child on admission to the hospital and the consent to administer treatment or change this are not taken into account.
There are two hospitals that offer pediatric hospital assistance: the Balti Psychotic Hospital and the Chisinau Psychotic Hospital. “During our monitoring visits, we saw wards where children of different ages and different sexes were placed together, but, according to standards, the children from the age of 10-12 should be separated. Together with children, we also saw persons who were receiving treatment based on a court decision, when they committed a wrongdoing,” stated Maia Bănărescu. The health system places the children with mental and behavioral disorders in the remit of community mental health centers or psychiatric hospitals without having human resources.
Among the recommendations of the report are to strengthen the screening capacities of the primary medical system, to offer primary medical assistance to families with children with mental and behavioral disorders, especially in areas with difficult access, to assess psychiatric hospitals’ capacities to provide specialized services according to the individual needs of children so as to favor the personal opinion, reintegration into the family and development of personal skills.
The thematic report on the observance of the rights of children with mental disorders was produced with support from UNICEF.
Note: IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
