Journal of Brain Research

Children and adolescents with severe behavioral disordersâ??what works? Pedagogical medical treatment model in the residential treatment and counseling center Planina, Slovenia

Abstract

Leonida Zalokar

Identifying children with the most severe emotional and behavioral disorders is extremely challenging. Emotional and behavioral disorders can find expression to different degrees; they can be variously manifested and located on a continuum from minor behavioral problems to the most severe forms of behavioral disorders. At the end of the continuum we find the percentage of the most dangerous and therapeutically unresponsive children - children with callous-unemotional traits.
We are very good at describing violent, dangerous behavior, but we are stuck with providing the right assistance programs – what works? Many mental health conditions in adulthood show their first signs already in childhood and, if left untreated, these can develop into conditions which need a regular care.
In the period from 2005 to 2010 the situation in Slovenia was so severe that the Social work centers and the court called upon the responsible institutions for action – residential treatment institutions did not accept violent children and adolescents; they were excluded from institutions during their stay, rejected by pediatric psychiatric hospitals, and were hospitalized in adult psychiatric wards. the whole system was afraid of them. In 2010, the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Affairs commissioned a survey on the situation in Slovenia which showed alarming numbers of untreated children, rejected across the entire system. In my speech, the pedagogical medical treatment model will be presented in more detail, together with the goals and the evaluation report.