A rising number of children and young people in Switzerland are facing psychological problems. Research done by SRF shows there are too few professionals to meet rising demand for treatment.
Social media is a key driver of rising distress among young people. Much of it floods them with images and stories that make them feel inadequate. Unrealistic body images are a big part of the problem. Some young men feel presured to have unnatural bodies that require super human levels of weight training and sometimes steroids and other drugs. While some young women feel inadquate if they don’t fit narrow ideals of what some influencer deems beautiful. In some cases this leads to anxiety and depression. War, conflict, climate change and other dominant news topics are adding further to a sense of despair for some of Switzerland’s youth.
Waiting times for those in distress are growing and increasingly only those requiring urgent help receive any. Most of those requesting help are girls and young women. This does not necessarily mean boys are suffering less. Boys tend to be less likely to ask for help. Common societal expectations requiring boys to be strong and independent can get in the way of them asking for help. Depressed boys and men typically express distress differently, often through anger, aggression and a general loss of interest in life. Switzerland’s sucide rate is roughly 2.5 times higher for males than for females.
In 2023, 42,000 young people in Switzerland called the 147 helpline service. 166 of them called after feeling an urge to self harm, a figure that has nearly tripled from the 57 that called for the same reason in 2019.
Oliver Bilke-Hentsch, the head of the Association of Chief Physicians in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has a clear view on what needs to happen. He told SRF that the number of psychotherapists need to rise. However, this is not easy. The required training is long and demanding. We also need to strengthen networking and engage with schools to help with early detection, said Bilke-Hentsch.
More on this:
SRF article (in German)
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