In order to prevent young patients suffering from mental ill-health from being locked into care, the unit En paths in, children and young people, mental health within the Jönköping County Region now opens.

- Today, the problem is that many people do not know where to turn. Now there is only one number you call. We will only have telephone contact, says Head of Unit Maria Heiver.

Open between 8 and 16

At the new unit, curators and nurses work with the referrals that come in, in many cases via telephone directly from parents, but also from student health, social services and health care.

- We constantly need to develop care and the entire community needs to work to improve the mental health of children and young people, says Maria Heiver.

But if the new unit leads to shorter queues in child and adolescent psychiatry is too early to say and the primary is thus to make better judgments of those who seek care.

Long waiting times

In 2018, 75 per cent of those applying for child and adolescent psychiatric care in the county received an initial assessment within 30 days. It shows figures from the National Board of Health and Welfare. This can be compared to 60 percent in the country.

But when it comes to the in-depth investigation or treatment that the patients are entitled to, only 40 percent of the patients in the county had received an in-depth investigation or treatment within 30 days. Only in Norrbotten and Kronoberg were there longer queuing times.

In the nation, 70 percent of patients receive help within the healthcare guarantee 2018.