[The Croatian Society for Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: present state and proposals for improving the development of child and adolescent psychiatric services in Croatia]. / Hrvatska udruga za dojenacku, djecju i adolescentnu psihijatriju: sadasnje stanje i prijedlog za unapredenje razvoja sluzbe djecje i adolescentne psihijatrije u Republici Hrvatskoj.

ABSTRACT

The paper presents the current state of child and adolescent psychiatry in the Republic of Croatia. Thirty-seven psychiatrists practicing child and adolescent psychiatry in the entire Republic point to the lack of staff in this subspecialty profession. The subspecialty was approved by the Ministry of Health in 1994. The city of Zagreb satisfies the criteria of some European countries as regards the number of staff, but not as regards the organization of the service for child and adolescent psychiatry (e.g. lack of university hospital department as the base for medical teaching and further specialist training). In other and larger centers in the Republic the situation is well below the criteria achieved in this profession, particularly in the countries of the European Union and the USA. Still, psychiatric services in some towns tend to support the development of child and adolescent psychiatry in their environment by providing facilities and staff. There are still attempts, even in the health service itself, to overcome this lack of personnel and organization by transferring numerous cases from the domain of child and adolescent psychiatry to experts in other medical specialties or non-medical professionals, instead of improving the development of child and adolescent psychiatry. In some countries of the European Union and the USA it has already reached the monospecialty status, a tendency supported by the UEMS, which also makes efforts to coordinate programs of specialist training in the European countries. The described situation certainly has consequences in the of mental health care of children, adolescents and their families, because their treatment often begins only when a disorder has visibly developed. Its clinical manifestations can take very different forms.