Ireland Grapples with Rise in Children Admitted to Adult Psych Facilities
September 1st, 2009 |
A GoodTherapy.org News Headline
Ireland has experienced considerable difficulty in addressing the perceived problems in its mental health programs, but recent measures to increase funding and the availability of services have helped spark hope for its citizens. However, some important issues still prevail, such as a growing tendency to admit children to adult psychiatric hospitals and other facilities, a practice some officials decry as being abusive. As mental health professionals at adult facilities rarely have necessary training in youth psychology and development, treatment is likely to be substandard and ultimately less effective than specialized care. The country and its mental health advocates hope to increase resources for youth to help mitigate the problem.
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An adult’s mind is ’stagnant’, but a child’s definitely isn’t.A child’s mind is always undergoing changes and development and is of course much more complex than that of an adult.In such a scenario,this report comes as a rude shock and a lesson for others countries to avoid.
This kind of treatment for youth does not sound like a good idea at all. The issues that face adolescents and adults with mental health difficulties are widely varied and different from one another and therefore will typically require totally different treatment plans and therapy styles. This is not even mentioning the harm that could come to so many of these children if they are ever to be left unsupervised with the adults. It does not take a brain surgeon to see that this could be a very bad situation all the way around. I know that funding is limited but there must be something that could be done to get these adults and children treatment facilities of their own.