Minors addicted to psychotropic drugs and workers without mental health training in juvenile justice centers

Barcelona"The kids who come in are getting worse and worse. I have poly-drug addicts. I don't have the necessary training to treat any of these addictions," laments a worker at a juvenile justice center who asked ARA to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals. In the last year, he has seen psychotic episodes, minors addicted to psychotropic drugs, and various mental health conditions for which he is unprepared. However, he explains that he has had to do it anyway, since the center doesn't have enough resources to guarantee professional care.

Minors who live in centers by order of a judge because they have committed a crime have more mental health and addiction problems than other minors their age. Even so, the care they receive is inadequate. A year ago, in a document accessed by the ARA, the government admitted the lack of professionals in the systemAlso contributing to the problem is poor adherence to treatment and the difficulties adolescents face in accessing mental health services. According to ARA staff, a year later, the situation remains the same: "Juvenile justice is on its deathbed."

This staff member, for example, explains that a boy arrived with mental health problems and no one notified them. He was on night duty when the minor suffered a psychotic episode. He had no way to contact other residents because the boy was attacking him, refusing to let him go outside to get help. The other children "were terrified," locked inside to avoid hurting themselves, and he had to "negotiate with the kid for two hours" to get him to let him out for a moment to get help. "How are we supposed to do this without training?" he asks.

Many of the teenagers with addiction problems in these centers have taken "very harrowing" migration routes to reach Catalonia, which is why they resort to substances, explains another worker. "We have fourteen-year-olds who have already been through one or two detox centers, others who have slept on the streets, who have suffered abuse. They take pills to survive. They tell me: 'This way I forget what's happening to me and I'm calmer,'" the worker explains.

An "insufficient" improvement agreement

A year ago, the Departments of Health and Justice already acknowledged the need to increase the working hours of mental health and addiction professionals in all centers across the country, as they were not "adjusted" to the current reality. However, it wasn't until last week that the Ministers of Health, Olga Pané, and Justice, Ramon Espadaler, signed an agreement to improve the care received by people with these types of problems, both in prisons and juvenile justice centers. ARA has obtained a copy of the agreement between the two departments, in which they commit to "defining and developing a portfolio of mental health and addiction services" in juvenile justice centers, but there is no defined budget, no planned hiring, and no increase in working hours for the psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals who provide care. The workers believe the measure is "insufficient" and comes too late.

A year ago, the executive branch was already talking about increasing the weekly hours of professionals in the centers within a year and deploying specialized teams in Tarragona, Lleida, and Girona simultaneously. This is due to territorial inequalities, which worsen the further we move away from Barcelona, ​​where the only team specializing in mental health issues within the juvenile justice system is located. Another worker interviewed by ARA acknowledges that the situation "has improved a little" but, like his colleague, insists that he lacks adequate training and that psychologists only see the children once or twice a week.

Higher risk of recidivism

In the rest of Catalonia, teenagers with this type of disorder receive care through the community mental health and addiction network, but in "certain areas, there are many difficulties in getting the referral center to visit them and begin treatment quickly enough." This often increases the risk that young people treated by the juvenile justice system will reoffend and use substances: "We receive a lot of information about kids who left the center and are now in prison, sleeping on the streets, or even dead," explains another worker, distressed, who wants to make it clear that there are still cases of reintegration among some teenagers.