Lithuania: youth mental health - from research to policies, practice and partnerships
ENLithuania is situated on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It was part of the former Soviet Union for 50 years (1940–1990) and followed typical eastern European economic, education, welfare and health care models. Lithuania regained its independence in March 1990, became a Member State of NATO in March 2004 and joined the EU in May 2004. The country is now in a complex transition phase as it moves from being a centralized economy to a democratic society with a market economy. Lithuanian citizens have basic human rights, there is an independent and strong media sector and many nongovernmental organizations have been established in different fields. But privatization, a perceived lack of transparency in redistributing former state property and other social transformations are causing disagreements and creating social inequalities within the country. These social inequalities may be contributing to the significant health inequalities (which include mental health) found in Lithuania. In 2006, 21 per 1000 children aged 0–17 years had a disability of some kind, with mental illness-related disability accounting for 56 % of the total. The incidence (diagnosed new cases) and prevalence (total number of individuals) of mental illness among children were 118.6 and 1293.5 per 100 000 respectively. HBSC surveys carried out in Lithuania in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 served as a basis for the development of a dynamic database for the analysis and evaluation of young people’s health behaviour. The data demonstrate the wide range of mental health problems young people face, the main ones being: a relatively low rating of subjective health and well-being; growing prevalence of smoking, alcohol and drug use; high prevalence of bullying in schools; and high rate of suicides.Like many other countries in eastern Europe, Lithuania’s system of mental health care is largely based on hospitalization of mentally ill patients in large institutions, backed by significant funding for medication. According to the 2000 statistics, Lithuania had three segregated long-term institutions for intellectually disabled children. Reforms now aim to bring mental health care closer to communities through the establishment of mental health care centres within municipalities and the creation of an effective community-level network of social psychiatric structures, with NGOs included in service provision. The implementation of the reforms raises many challenges, however, particularly in relation to the younger population. Most preventive mental health programmes for young people are implemented with the involvement of NGOs. Campaigns such as “Childline” and “Stop bullying” are examples of such successful initiatives. They aim to create safer school environments for children and promote friendly and respectful communication that does not involve humiliation and bullying. Other projects like “Teenagers in action” are aimed at encouraging involvement of youth volunteers to provide crisis interventions and education for peers. “One-day centres against risk behaviour” have been set up to reach the teenagers at greatest risk of self-destructive behaviour. There is no system of state funding, however, to guarantee sustainability of these preventive programmes. [From the publication]
