Less than a month ago (4 April), State Secretary of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic Lenka Dunajová Družkovská Psychiatric Clinic of the University Hospital Martin, as well as the Clinic of Children's Psychology at the National Institute of Children's Diseases in Bratislava, visited the National Institute of Children's Diseases in Bratislava, where he and the representatives of the institutions discussed the possibility of strengthening the capacities of children's psychiatric patients. The situation is serious throughout Slovakia and MZ SR will therefore continue activities that will strengthen bed capacity in all regions.
Today the Department of Health can inform him that following a request of 14 April 2022, the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic has allocated capital expenditure of EUR 650 000 to the construction of a daily station for children with mental disorders and to the reconstruction of premises for the extension of the Clinic of Children's Psychiatrics in NÚDCH.
State Secretary MZ SR Lenka Dunajová Družkovská: This is excellent news. I appreciate that the Ministry of Finance responded very promptly to the request.
The daily stationer will be designed for children with eating disorders and will provide comprehensive psychiatric treatment with special emphasis on psychotherapy and psychiatric rehabilitation, relief of institutional treatment and bed pressure, the child will be treated in its natural environment, which will facilitate the treatment process. By reconstructing the premises for the psychiatric clinic, the institution will increase the bed capacity of the clinic by 20 beds, thus reducing waiting times, which currently range in the range of about 12 – 18 months.
Mental health and broad spectrum aid in the area are also intended to improve resources from the Plan of Recovery and Resilience of the Slovak Republic - this topic needs to be brought to the fore in the pandemic times and in the time of the war in Ukraine also from the point of view of finding solutions.
The number of patients with more severe psychiatric disorders that often require hospitalization from 4 to 6 weeks is increasing significantly. Slovakia, and especially Bratislava, is struggling with the lack of outpatient, bed, treatment and stationary capacities.
Lenka Dunajová Cooperative: The Ministry of Health has its priorities and one of them is mental health. The situation with the treatment of psychiatric diagnoses in children is in a pitiful state in Slovakia, which has hit me personally, but we want to improve it gradually.
