PADUA – The long wave of the pandemic is felt on the mental health. Covid has profoundly affected the global well-being of people, especially young people, by doing increase cases of depression, anxiety, self-harm and psychosis. This is one of the facets highlighted by the year-end balance presented yesterday in Padua at the Ulss 6 Euganea headquarters. We have gone from about 12,000 adult patients followed up in 2020 to over 15,000 in 2022. «In the last period we have recorded a widespread psychic discomfort with important symptoms – clarifies Maria Chiara Corti, director of health and social services of Ulss 6 -. In the adult population we have seen a 22 percent increase in psychiatric diagnoses in two years. Unfortunately it doesn’t end here because the district Units for adolescents have had a great increase in contacts in the last year and now they have 402 adolescents with severe mental suffering in charge”.
Increases fragility
The province of Padua has seven district functional units for adolescents (Ufda), activated at the end of 2021 with the aim of providing support to children and young adults with problems in the emotional and behavioral sphere. A team made up of eight psychologists, two educators, two social workers, as well as operators who answer the dedicated switchboard works inside. «We are strengthening both the psychiatry operating units to deal with resignations and retirements, and the connected territorial services – continues Dr. Corti -. Through regional funding we are hiring new staff, including educators and psychiatric rehabilitation therapists, little-known but fundamental figures in this field”. And there are also those who fall victim to addictions. In one year, about 200 children under the age of 24 asked for help at the Serd in Paduabut that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The theme of fragility, among other things, will be one of the cornerstones of the future 2023-2025 area plan of the Euganea. It is a shared planning tool between Ulss and Municipalities in the areas of social and health integration (elderly, minors and families, mental health, people with disabilities, addictions, social marginalization): a bridge that accompanies the territories in the transition phase towards a new organizational model with the integrated implementation of the Pnrr. «In the post pandemic we see a clear increase in the needs of fragile people – declares the director general of Ulss 6, Paolo Fortuna -. From adolescents to the elderly, more and more local and home-based answers are being asked. To govern all of this, it is necessary to create a network, focusing on dialogue and confrontation between institutions. We have the great challenge of the Pnrr ahead of us, community homes and hospitals will have to be a reference precisely for the fragile sections of the population”.
The youngest
Already during the most critical period of the Covid pandemic, Professor Michela Gatta, director of Child Neuropsychiatry at the University of Padua Hospital, had focused attention on the growth of discomfort even among the youngest. Since last year, the department’s outpatient activity has increased by 150%, reaching 3,000 visits in 12 months. Added to this are the almost 150 pediatric hospitalizations, most of which are emergency. «Depending on the waves we have seen different pictures – said Professor Gatta – initially we had to deal with adolescent behavior and impulse control disordersthen i increased eating disorders and self-harm, both suicidal and non-suicidal. More recently, with the resumption of school life, we see more and more prominent cases of acute anxiety and panic».