In the last five years, the number of young people who have been admitted to the Children’s Clinical University Hospital after intentionally self-harming has almost tripled in Latvia.
Karina Beinert, child psychiatrist at the BKUS Child and Youth Mental Health Center: “Our inpatient department is full of these young people who have either tried to commit suicide, or regularly self-harm and do it in a very severe form, or who have very intense suicidal thoughts.”
In 2022, three young people of school age who studied in the same gymnasium committed suicide in Latvia.
Anete Olava, a psychologist at Jelgava’s Spīdola State Gymnasium School: “We have not found any connections between these cases.”
Experts say that young people’s behavior is more impulsive, and therefore harder to predict.
The child’s mother, anonymous: “The child was cheerful, at least with his friends. There were interests. Went to various events, extracurricular activities. Maybe it gave a false impression that everything was fine.”
Why has the number of self-harm among young people increased so much in Latvia? And does the fact that the school is elite negatively affect the mental health of teenagers? That Open file journalists Ieva Alberte and Raimonds Rudzāts investigate in half an hour.
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