A psychiatrist in Lithuania refused to help a Russian-speaking teenager with autism in a crisis situation

A psychiatrist in Lithuania refused to help a Russian-speaking teenager with autism spectrum disorder who was in critical condition because the child did not speak Lithuanian, the LRT television and radio company reports.

According to media reports, the incident occurred in July: a 16-year-old teenager wanted to commit suicide when he learned that his father had been imprisoned for a long time. The man alone cared for his son with autism spectrum disorder for more than a year after the child’s mother suddenly died of a heart attack in March 2025: it was then that the teenager discovered her body.

As LRT points out, the child welfare service took the teenager in crisis to an appointment with child psychiatrist Linas Slushnis, but he refused to provide the child with vital assistance because he did not speak Lithuanian.

“The Child Rights Protection Service accused child psychiatrist Linas Slushnis of refusing to provide assistance to a Russian-speaking child who was in a crisis situation,” the report says.

Lithuanian Minister of Social Security and Labor Inga Ruginienė also responded to the incident. According to her, law enforcement agencies should be interested in this story.

“In my opinion, this situation could be assessed by the competent authorities, including the Prosecutor General’s Office, if there are grounds to raise the issue of applying Article 144 of the Criminal Code (for failure to provide assistance to a person whose life is in danger - ed.),” the minister wrote on her page on the social network Facebook* (banned in the Russian Federation as extremist).

According to her, child rights specialists who accompanied the teenager to the medical facility offered to provide a transfer.

“Everything necessary was offered so that the child could be understood and he could get the help he needed, but Linas Slushnis refused to fulfill his duties... The child at that moment was in critical condition, on the verge of suicide,” she wrote.