President Zoran Milanovic on Monday visited the Zagreb Child and Youth Protection Centre, noting that last year's earthquake and coronavirus pandemic had impacted everybody's mental health, notably children's.

“Everything that befell us, the earthquake in Zagreb, followed by the earthquake in Banija, has definitely taken its toll,” Milanovic said after a working meeting with the centre’s head, Gordana Buljan-Flander.

“I have learned that there is a pandemic of mental disorders. Naturally, the criteria are different than 30 years ago… people are more demanding nowadays, possibly more pampered but that’s good, that means that expectations are higher and that people live better than they used to when, for example, I was a child,” said Milanovic.

He said that investments and understanding could help improve mental health.

Buljan-Flander calls for hiring more mental health experts 

Buljan-Flander said that the centre was under more strain than had been the case before the coronavirus pandemic.

“A survey covering more than 2,000 children shows that at the time of the pandemic and earthquake in Zagreb 9% of children suffered from significant anxiety, 9% exhibited clinically significant signs of depression and 14% had PTSD,” she said.

Commenting on the protection of abused and neglected children, which is the centre’s primary mission, she said that according to police data, in the first five months of 2021 the number of sexually abused children in Croatia had doubled compared to the same period of 2020.

Buljan-Flander said that she considered the president’s visit as an expression of support for the protection of children and young people’s mental health, including for experts’ work, as well as for the hiring of a larger number of experts on metal health, both in Zagreb and the entire country.