Hur dåligt mår våra barn?: har barn och ungdomars psykiska hälsa försämrats, eller är det retorik

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this essay is to se if the mental illness of Swedish children has deteriorated or if it is a rhetorical issue. Are the newspapers overreacting and spreading the wrong messages?. Children seeking relief have increased, and the queues are long to get an appointment to a psychiatrist at the children- and youth psychiatry clinic. The daily newspapers are reporting that the numbers of girls falling ill with anorexia are increasing every year. When in reality , statistically it has not changed in the last 25 years. The newspapers also report about the increase of the number of children committing suicide, but again the statistics show a decrease instead!. The method used was qualitative investigation, and seven people from different working areas, were interviewed; psychologists, teachers, curators and social workers. They all agree that the number of children seeking relief have increased in the last five years; and children are living under more pressure now than ever before. They think, that the newspaper reports are increasing the awareness of children's mental health among adults, especially parents. My conclusion is, that after reading a lot of articles, statistics, and analysing my interviews, that the daily newspapers are overreacting but at the same time bringing the children's problems up to the surface and making us adults more aware of their psychological problems.