In Albania children and adolescents that need therapy for mental health and neurodevelopmental problems have doubled since the Covid 19 pandemic.
“Neurodevelopmental problems are problems related to different diagnoses. The most frequent diagnoses are related to autism, phonological language problems that are extremely frequent as well as learning problems at school age, children with hyperactivity and other rarer diagnoses that are anxiety, depression in teenagers”, said Besmira Zenelaj, doctor at the National Therapeutic Center for Children.
Isolation in the pandemic seems to have increased the problems in children.
“During the pandemic, they remained closed in the absence of interaction with their peers, the extended schedule in front of the screens has influenced the emergence of neurodevelopmental difficulties, on the other hand, among teenagers we have many problems of anxiety, with the manifestation of behavior at school, drop in lessons”, -said Besmira Zenelaj, doctor at the National Therapeutic Center for Children.
In the national therapeutic and rehabilitation center for children, currently around 200 children, up to 18 years old, are receiving daily services, while 11 children accompanied by one parent are hospitalized.
