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Magdeburg (dpa / sa) - More and more children and young people in Saxony-Anhalt need psychotherapeutic treatment.
For example, they showed reactions to severe stress, anxiety disorders or depression, the Barmer health insurance company announced on Wednesday in Magdeburg.
According to this, around 16,000 children and young people in Saxony-Anhalt needed psychotherapeutic help in 2019, compared to around 5,100 in 2009.
The increase is thus 214 percent.
The numbers refer to people aged up to 24 years.
The state managing director of Barmer in Saxony-Anhalt, Axel Wiedemann, emphasized with a view to the strong growth: On the one hand, the help of psychotherapists is now socially accepted. On the other hand, access was made easier by a reform in 2017. The number of therapists in the country who took care of the mental health of children and adolescents increased from 71 to around 115 between 2009 and 2019. Anyone who wants to take the help of a psychotherapist must, however, expect waiting times of three months and more.
According to Wiedemann, figures on psychotherapies for 2020, which reflect the effects of the corona pandemic and the lockdown, are not yet available.
A survey by the East German Chamber of Psychotherapists (OPK) among colleagues in March 2021 offers a spotlight: According to the Magdeburg child and adolescent psychotherapist and OPK board member Barbara Breuer-Radbruch, 80 percent of the respondents recorded a significantly increased demand.
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According to the responses, there are more problems with school refusal, learning problems and school anxiety.
Isolation, loneliness and family problems emerged more frequently, as did depressive developments in adolescent patients.
Symptoms that were there anyway worsened.
These included depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Often new fears are added.
In particular, more 14 to 17-year-olds come to the practices.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210428-99-384450 / 2
Data on children, adolescents and young adults receiving psychotherapy