Position Paper: fragmented youth healthcare services in the Netherlands endanger treatment of teenage boys with psychiatric disorders

AbstractFor children who show strongly deviant behaviour in the Netherlands, a distinction is made between behavioural problems and psychiatric problems. As a result, two different domains have emerged over time, each with its own legal frameworks and inclusion and exclusion criteria. Consequently, there is no well-organized, coherent system for youth mental health care in the Netherlands. This strong dichotomy raises the question whether patients are being admitted to facilities where they are receiving appropriate care. In addition, referral bias can arise, because the type of complaint with which a young person presents is often dependent on the type of coping of the individual and thus, in turn, the gender of the patient. In this Position Paper, we examined the gender distribution at a youth psychiatric high and intensive care (HIC-Y) and other streams of youth care in the Netherlands to explore possible inequities in access to psychiatric care among children and adolescents. Results show that girls are significantly more likely than boys to be admitted to the HIC-Y for suicidal thoughts, self-harm and emotional dysregulation. In fact, girls account for 80% of all admissions, while boys account for only 20%. In contrast, regional and national reports from youth services and probation show a majority of boys being admitted (56 –89%). The way care is organized (lack of cross-domain collaboration and the interplay between gender-dependent coping and exclusion criteria) see...
Source: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research