More than one thousand teenagers attempted suicide in Poland in the first nine months of this year. This figure is already more than in the whole of last year as well as the highest number since records began in 1999.
According to this year’s police statistics, the proportion of suicide attempts by teenagers has also risen, from between 6 and 7 to almost 10%.
Experts warn that the pandemic has had profound negative effects on the well-being of children, writes Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. “The breakdowns that they [teenagers] experience are more dramatic, more intense,” said Wiktor Dróżdż, a doctor from a psychiatric clinic in Bydgoszcz.
Between January and September, more than a thousand teenagers attempted suicide in Poland. In the whole of 2020, the number stood at 843, while it was 915 in 2019. In earlier years there were around 700 cases on average. This year’s figure for young people already marks the highest number of attempts since 1999.
Higher numbers have been recorded in recent years because of a more precise data collection method, police spokesman Michał Gaweł told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. But the true scale is larger still, because not all cases are reported, he added.
The number of all people who died by suicide in Poland this year – 3,976 – has also already exceeded the total 2020 figure, which was 3,916.
Experts have cited the overburdened and understaffed Polish system of psychiatric care as a contributor to the issue. “Currently we are at 150-160% of our capacity,” Agnieszka Gmitrowicz, a doctor from a mental health clinic in Łódź told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Patients who have attempted suicide now constitute now more than 90% of all their patients, a sharp increase from a share of between 60% and 80% present in the past, she added.
Dróżdż, the doctor from Bydgoszcz, said that breakdowns experienced by teenagers were now “more dramatic, more intense”.
Poland’s health minister, Adam Niedzielski, said that the government was working on creating a “network of local centres for psychological and psychotherapeutic support” which would be in locations “more easily accessible” to young people.
In an appeal to Niedzielski last year, Poland’s children’s rights commissioner, Mikołaj Pawlak, wrote that “600,000 young people require immediate mental health support” but spend “months” waiting to see a doctor. Pawlak warned that the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns would put further strain on the system.
Earlier this month, Poland’s ministry of health launched a campaign urging young people to verbalise their problems and “unmask” their emotions.
🎥 Rusza kampania "Powiedz co czujesz. Zdemaskuj emocje".
Zobacz spot promujący kampanię 👉https://t.co/9PeQv2GYNE pic.twitter.com/fdbyrzHC0c— Ministerstwo Zdrowia (@MZ_GOV_PL) November 4, 2021
Last month, UNICEF published a report on the worsening mental health situation of children, in which it argued that suicide is now the second leading cause of death in Europe among those aged between 15 and 19 years old, second only to road injuries.
The authors estimate that nine million adolescents in Europe (aged 10 to 19) have mental health disorders, with anxiety and depression accounting for more than half of cases.
A separate study published last year by the OECD found that Poland has one of the highest suicide rates among young people in the European Union.
Main image credit: GoranH/Pixabay (under Pixabay License)
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
