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The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19

Background: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment demand and supply in children and adolescents with mental disorders during the first year of the pandemic from the perspective of child and adolescent psychiatrists and psychologists in Switzerland. Methods: The survey was conduc...

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Autores principales: Werling, Anna Maria, Walitza, Susanne, Eliez, Stephan, Drechsler, Renate
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953578/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35328941
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063252
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author Werling, Anna Maria
Walitza, Susanne
Eliez, Stephan
Drechsler, Renate
author_facet Werling, Anna Maria
Walitza, Susanne
Eliez, Stephan
Drechsler, Renate
author_sort Werling, Anna Maria
collection PubMed
description Background: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment demand and supply in children and adolescents with mental disorders during the first year of the pandemic from the perspective of child and adolescent psychiatrists and psychologists in Switzerland. Methods: The survey was conducted anonymously, in German or French and online in April/May 2021. Mental health professionals working in child and adolescent psychiatry, psychotherapy services or independent practices were contacted by email. Results: N = 454 professionals completed the survey (176 child and adolescent psychiatrists and 276 psychologists). After an initial period of decreased demand during the lockdown in spring 2020, requests for treatment increased, considerably exceeding the demand pre-pandemic and reaching a peak in January/February/March 2021. The vast majority of professionals (78.2%) estimated that there was currently too little supply during the pandemic, which differed from the evaluation of the pre-pandemic situation (37%). A total of 65% of participants indicated that waiting time until the initiation of treatment increased during the pandemic, 41% reported their current workload to be somewhat higher and 44.5% much higher. Conclusions: For the first pandemic year, youth mental health professionals reported a large increase in the treatment demand and waiting time and a worrisome overload of treatment services.
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spelling pubmed-89535782022-03-26 The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19 Werling, Anna Maria Walitza, Susanne Eliez, Stephan Drechsler, Renate Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment demand and supply in children and adolescents with mental disorders during the first year of the pandemic from the perspective of child and adolescent psychiatrists and psychologists in Switzerland. Methods: The survey was conducted anonymously, in German or French and online in April/May 2021. Mental health professionals working in child and adolescent psychiatry, psychotherapy services or independent practices were contacted by email. Results: N = 454 professionals completed the survey (176 child and adolescent psychiatrists and 276 psychologists). After an initial period of decreased demand during the lockdown in spring 2020, requests for treatment increased, considerably exceeding the demand pre-pandemic and reaching a peak in January/February/March 2021. The vast majority of professionals (78.2%) estimated that there was currently too little supply during the pandemic, which differed from the evaluation of the pre-pandemic situation (37%). A total of 65% of participants indicated that waiting time until the initiation of treatment increased during the pandemic, 41% reported their current workload to be somewhat higher and 44.5% much higher. Conclusions: For the first pandemic year, youth mental health professionals reported a large increase in the treatment demand and waiting time and a worrisome overload of treatment services. MDPI 2022-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8953578/ /pubmed/35328941 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063252 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Werling, Anna Maria
Walitza, Susanne
Eliez, Stephan
Drechsler, Renate
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19
title The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19
title_full The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19
title_fullStr The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19
title_short The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health Care of Children and Adolescents in Switzerland: Results of a Survey among Mental Health Care Professionals after One Year of COVID-19
title_sort impact of the covid-19 pandemic on mental health care of children and adolescents in switzerland: results of a survey among mental health care professionals after one year of covid-19
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8953578/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35328941
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063252
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