She describes it as "a steamroller that has dragged into psychiatry".
- Today it is our largest patient group. By far the most common question concerns questions about ADHD, says Sophia Eberhard, chief medical officer for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö.
Traditionally, psychiatry has devoted itself to long, comprehensive investigations. The queues have grown. Many have instead applied to private alternatives to get an ADHD investigation and paid between SEK 30,000 and 50,000 for an investigation.
In Scania, the trips to ADHD clinics in Denmark have become more and more frequent - and cost the Scania taxpayers over one hundred million kroner every year.
- The Danish diagnoses do not always measure up. We need to get away from that, says Sophia Eberhard.
Now a new project is being launched in Region Skåne. It should be quick and easy to find time for an initial assessment.
- We have to meet the enormous demand with a changed way of working. We must be able to meet the people as quickly as possible, says Sophia Eberhard.
The project has received SEK 1.5 million from the region and begins with child and youth psychiatry. The goal is to be able to make an assessment in simpler cases in just one or two visits.
You should be able to get a diagnosis after the second visit?
- I think so, in the simpler and more uncomplicated cases, says Sophia Eberhard.
The point of the faster assessments is that patients should also be able to get answers quickly when it is a normal variation - and where the care does not judge that you have a diagnosis.
- We shall not make diagnoses for safety's sake. There are many cases where you have these traits but manage your everyday life well enough. Then we need help to understand that it is a normal variant, and that nothing speaks for a diagnosis. We need to get better at courting rather than always diagnosing, and be able to do it faster, says Sophia Eberhard.
She describes the patients who seek help for investigation as divided into three main groups. For one group, life is greatly affected by symptoms and difficulties.
- There it is quite clear that it leans towards a diagnosis, often ADHD, but the problems can sometimes also be explained by other psychiatric conditions.
The other extreme is the group who may be wondering if they have a diagnosis, but where life works quite well otherwise.
- They should be able to feel listened to, and be confident that an expert has made a qualified assessment.
The third group is more difficult to assess.
- They may have difficulty with certain arenas in life, but where it is still not entirely clear that it is a diagnosis. Then you need to deepen the investigation, perhaps talk more with relatives and teachers.
Even in cases with more complicated conditions, where co-morbidity with autism or depression is suspected, longer investigations will still be needed, says Sophia Eberhard.
The aim of the new way of working is still that everything should go faster - and that public care can help more people in this way. The hope is that the working method can also be tested in adult psychiatry in the future.
- We absolutely must not be careless in this, but we must think more "good enough" to be able to meet more people and faster, says Sophia Eberhard.
