DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES IN CENTRAL EUROPE: HEALTH POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF THE SITUATION IN SWITZERLAND, GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS
DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES IN CENTRAL EUROPE: HEALTH POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF THE SITUATION IN SWITZERLAND, GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS

Author(s): Klaus Schmeck, Susanne Schlüter-Müller
Contributor(s): Adnan Arnautlija (Translator)
Subject(s): Social psychology and group interaction, Comparative Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Clinical psychology, Behaviorism, Health and medicine and law, Pedagogy
Published by: Akademija Nauka i Umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine
Keywords: child and adolescent psychiatry; social psychiatry; developmental psychopathology;
Summary/Abstract: Child and adolescent psychiatry is a young medical specialty that is in charge of mentally disturbed children and adolescents and their families. The discipline is in close contact with pediatrics and general psychiatry as well as with psychology, educational sciences and social work. In the core of child and adolescent psychiatry are the developmental perspective and the social psychiatric approach that integrates the family system and other relevant psychosocial systems like school or peer-groups. Developmental psychopathology approaches are the basis of all etiological explanations of child psychiatric disorders. In central Europe, child and adolescent psychiatry has evolved in different ways. Switzerland has the highest concentration of child and adolescent psychiatrists worldwide and, as a consequence, is focused mainly on individual psychotherapeutic approaches. In Germany, the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists has been insufficient for a long period of time so that the approach is more focused on social psychiatry where a child and adolescent psychiatrist leads a team of psychologists, social pedagogues and social workers. In the Netherlands child and adolescent psychiatry is clearly focused on evidenced based medicine, but has been taken out of the medical system in 2015 and has become part of community care together with social work and therapeutic pedagogy. In many Balkan countries child and adolescent psychiatry has a long tradition but the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists is low in comparison to western and central European countries. Currently there are many threats that endanger child and adolescent psychiatry as an independent and powerful medical specialty that is of high relevance to compete the various challenges for children and adolescents in modern societies and especially in societies in transition.

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