FPÖ – Hauser: This federal government’s Corona policy has caused serious harm to children and young people

2023-09-09 14:43:20

Budget funds for Corona measures must flow into the expansion of child and adolescent psychiatry

Vienna (OTS) – Before tomorrow’s global suicide prevention day, FPÖ-NAbg hit today. Gerald Hauser, member of the parliamentary health and family committee Alarm. As the Austrian Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (ÖGKJP for short) announced, suicidality among children and adolescents has tripled since 2018. Hauser: “These numbers are frightening and are largely the fault of this federal government, which has caused serious harm, especially to children and young people, with its failed Corona policy. The government project ‘Healthy from the Crisis’ assumes that more than half of all young people are affected by depressive symptoms, almost every second young person suffers from sleep disorders and around a third are affected by anxiety symptoms. 16 percent even have recurring suicidal thoughts. We are talking about over 860,000 children and young people. This is a self-indictment for this Corona policy and a shame!”

For Hauser, the improvements decided by the governing parties to help children and young people with psychological problems following the “Mental Health Youth Referendum” do not go far enough. In order to be able to better help the children and young people harmed by the Corona measures, the FPÖ MP continued to demand that funds from the Corona budget for the current year be reallocated. The governing parties have already rejected a corresponding FPÖ application. “If almost one in six children or one in six young people repeatedly thinks about taking their own life, then all alarm bells must ring. Instead of spending hundreds of millions of euros on corona vaccines and destroying them, these funds must be used to expand capacities in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry as quickly as possible. This year alone, the black-green government has reserved 1.2 billion euros for Corona. That must have an end. Our children and young people will thank us,” said FPÖ-NAbg. Gerald Hauser concludes.