(ANSA) – ROME, OCTOBER 10 – Globally 1 out of 7 adolescents aged between 10 and 19 suffers from problems related to mental health. To recall this on the occasion of the World Day of Mental Health, UNICEF adding that most of the 800,000 people who die from suicide every year are young and that suicide is the fourth cause of death for young people between 15 and 19 years.
“Half of all problems related to mental health – adds Unicef - begin by the age of 14 and 75% of all problems related to mental health develop by the age of 24, but most of the cases are not identified. and is not treated “.
Despite the high prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents, prevention and treatment services remain inadequate in Italy. “Before the pandemic, in 2019, only 30 out of 100 minors with a neuropsychic disorder were able to access a specialized territorial service and only 15 out of 100 managed to have appropriate therapeutic-rehabilitative responses”. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended Italy to equip the mental health system for children and adolescents with sufficient human, technical and financial resources.
Unicef Italy has launched the petition “Health for the mind of children and adolescents”, which has collected over 7,000 signatures in a few weeks. The goal, he explains, is to mobilize public opinion to support the recommendations that UNICEF addresses to the ministers of the new Legislature competent on the subject to guarantee investments and quality actions aimed at supporting and protecting the mental health of every child. child and teenager. (HANDLE).
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