Report: Psychological services to children, adolescents lacking
STATE agencies providing case management and psychological services to children and adolescents are juggling twice the number of children they should be serving, based on international standards, a newly released European Union-funded study says.
The research shows that in order to meet the international benchmark which ensures that the quality of services are not compromised, and to protect against staff burnout, local agencies should be serving about half of the 6,323 individuals they are now working with.
The findings were launched on Wednesday by the EU, in partnership with the national ecurity ministry and other departments of government, at police headquarters in Kingston.
The current estimated demand for these services, which are being provided by 10 agencies in three parishes — Kingston, St Andrew and St James — is at least 10,523, or three times more than the numbers they should be serving.
He added that six of the 10 psychologists serving five agencies in the Kingston and St Andrew and St James are working part time, and only two agencies have psychiatrists working with children. Of the two, only one works full time with the system.
Twelve per cent, or about 1,200 of the more than 10,000 children and adolescents in the three parishes, should be receiving psychological and psychiatric interventions, the study said.
The needs assessment study examined case management and psychological services for children and adolescents, unattached youth, youth in skills training programmes at the HEART/NSTA Trust, children in juvenile corrections, victims of intimate partner and other forms of violence across the parishes where five zones of special operations were declared in 2021. It also paid particular attention to 25 schools in these areas.
The three parishes highlighted have a combined population of 855,470 or approximately a third of the country’s total population.
Pointing to last week’s quintuple murder in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, senior researcher Jennifer Jones said the study found a huge gap between needs assessment and psychosocial support, including in schools.
She said among the three tiers of students requiring intervention in schools is an estimated three per cent, some of who will need medication, and are in need of intensive individualised attention, which can only be provided by psychiatrists and psychologists.
At the same time, Jones said there are high levels of self-harming behaviours among juveniles 12-17 years old in Government facilities. “Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. There is always a suicide watch on in the girls’ sections,” she remarked.
She said there is also the trauma of those exposed to violence in the home and communities, or are severely beaten, or are witnessing murders of relatives or neighbours. She said that school dropouts and unattached youth are the most vulnerable group for gang recruitment.
The study was carried out to estimate the psychosocial and case management needs for children, youth and victims of violence who will benefit from the main interventions of the Citizen Security Plan.
The plan targets students 10-17 years under the national security and education ministries’ ‘25 schools strategy’; the vocational skills training of youth under HEART/NSTA; offender management for children up to 17 years; and support services for victims of gender-based violence.
The experts have strongly suggested that the Government invests in improving facilities and staff in the relevant agencies which provide psychosocial services, in order to stem the trauma which most vulnerable children and youth are suffering from, and steer them away from violence.