A new priority in psychiatry: focused services for adolescents

Finland was the first European country to give a high priority to the development of specialized psychiatric services for adolescents. The aim of this paper is to 1) describe the development of these services, 2) study the status and the functioning of psychiatric services for adolescents in 2000 and 3) present some future challenges. The data have been collected from the social welfare register, from a questionnaire sent to Health Districts and via telephone interviews. In addition, the functioning of the treatment system has been studied in detail in one Health District by means of interviews and questionnaires. The general targets set in 1987 giving national priority to focused psychiatric services for adolescents were mostly reached in 2000, and resources for adolescents have increased markedly. In spite of this, minors still have to be treated in adult psychiatric wards. Many problems were detected in the functioning of the chains of treatment for adolescents. The differentiation between primary and secondary care was unclear. Primary care had a limited capacity in the early detection of mental disorders in adolescents. The services for adolescents were broken down into small units. Furthermore, there were no comprehensive future plans. The need for specialized psychiatric services for adolescents is evident. In addition to developing adequate resources, the quality of care should also be guaranteed by training and by competent long-term planning of psychiatric service systems.