Poland’s mental health care sector has improved in recent years, but there are still significant challenges to overcome, with one campaigner pointing out that a Polish child faces a 238-day waiting list to see a psychiatrist.
Data of the National Chamber of Physicians, as of September 30, indicates that there are only 4,585 professionally active psychiatrists in Poland. While, according to Eurostatfrom 2017 to 2021, the number of psychiatrists in Poland increased from nine psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants to 12 in 2021, which is not enough to meet the growing demand.
Germany has almost 30 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants, while the Netherlands, Finland and Greece each have 25 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants.
Polish statistics look even bleaker when it comes to child and adolescent psychiatry.
Current data estimates that there are approximately 7 million children in Poland, of whom more than 400,000 are potentially in need of psychiatric assistance. However, the workforce in psychiatry is very limited, with only 545 child psychiatrists in practice.
“238 days – this is the average waiting time in Poland for an appointment with a child psychiatrist,” Dominik Kuc, an activist with the GrowSPACE Foundation, who analyzed national statistics, told Euractiv.
“The infamous record belongs to the Bedzin center, where the waiting time for an appointment is 2,441 days, or…. more than six years,” he added.
Growing mental health crisis in Poland
A recent survey conducted by the DIALOG therapy center among primary care doctors in Poland revealed that more than 94% of doctors believe that the number of patients requiring psychiatric treatment in primary care has increased significantly in recent years.
Worsening mental health issues are attributed to a variety of factors, with doctors surveyed citing the COVID-19 pandemic (36%), the war in Ukraine (12.5%) and the accelerating pace of life (10%). ).
“The increase in the number of patients seeking specialist psychiatric and psychological help may suggest that there is a growing awareness in society that mental health must be considered in the same way as physical health,” said Professor Marek Jarema, scientific director of DIALOG Therapy. Center.
According to him, Poles are gradually becoming less ashamed to talk about their mental health problems; they are not afraid to seek help from specialists.
However, the consequences of still limited access to psychiatric care are dramatic. Polish children rank among the lowest in Europe in mental well-being, with one of the highest rates of suicide attempts.
In 2022, the police investigated 2,031 suicide attempts by people under the age of 18, an increase of 148% since 2020. In total – all age groups combined – 5,108 people committed suicide in Poland in 2022.
More funding is not enough to solve the problems
In response to these challenges, the Polish government launched a three-tier support system as part of ongoing reforms, focusing on preventive healthcare, specialized care and hospital treatment for the most serious cases.
The reforms were launched in the early days of the pandemic. However, the new system is still being trained and developed.
Lack of support in schools is also a problem.
“In Poland, there is no functional diagnostic system within schools. The shortage of psychologists, combined with the lack of teacher training, aggravates the problem. Additionally, some municipalities are still facing a lack of prevention programs that could be effectively implemented within educational institutions,” Dominik Kuc told Euractiv.
Despite government efforts to meet these substantial health needs by quadrupling spending on child and young people’s mental health over the past four years to more than €200 million, experts say this represents only a small fraction of actual needs.
Polish psychiatry faces not only staff shortages, but also financial constraints, leading to limited availability of services, long waiting lists, lack of equipment in hospitals and lack of collaboration between different centers and institutions, which undermines the effectiveness of the system.
The problem is further compounded by inadequate public education about mental health, perpetuating the stigma and myths surrounding psychiatric disorders.
On October 20, the Supreme Medical Council appealed to the Minister of Health, who called for urgent actions to ensure a substantial increase in funding for pediatric and child and adolescent psychiatric hospital services.
This highlights the recognition of the crucial need for increased support and resources to address the specific mental health challenges faced by children and young people in Poland.
“There’s a lot of talk about prioritizing preventative health care. Child psychiatry is the prevention of disorders that we encounter later in the offices of many specialists,” underlined the President of the Supreme Medical Council Łukasz Jankowski.
This is why Poland recently launched the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Program (mhGAP).
This evidence-based approach aims to increase mental health services, particularly within primary health care, thereby reducing unmet need. Integrating mental health services into primary care is crucial for early identification, rapid assessment and facilitating referrals.
Dr Nino Berdzuli, WHO Representative in Poland, highlighted the role of general practitioners as frontline actors in the provision of community-based mental health care to ease pressure on a sector psychiatric overload.
The mhGAP program will initially be tested in Podlaskie and Mazowieckie voivodeships, with plans for nationwide implementation.
(Paulina Mozolewska – Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Sarantis Michalopoulos | Euractiv.com)
