Pristina, 10 October 2025 – On the occasion of October 10, World Mental Health Day, the Ombudsman, together with the Deputy Mr. Basri Kastrati, the Director of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (NMPT), Ms. Shqipe Ibraj Mala and her team, visited the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the only ward within the Psychiatric Clinic, of the tertiary level which provides outpatient and hospitalisation services for children and adolescents.

The Ombudsman emphasized the importance of protecting and promoting the mental health of children and adolescents as a fundamental state and social responsibility. The focus of the discussion was: the lack of infrastructure capacity, which does not allow the provision of appropriate services for all categories of disorders, especially for cases of children using narcotic substances, then the need for staff profiling and attending training/programs that enable them to be profiled for the management of symptoms of various disorders, especially for children using narcotic substances, was also emphasized.

The Ombudsman also mentioned some of the findings provided in the Report with recommendations regarding the Responsibility of the State in relation to the mental health of children, which was published on May 6, 2025, where it provided 169 recommendations.

These recommendations, among others, include the lack of mental health centres for children in the regions of Kosovo, the low number of health personnel in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in relation to the demands, staff overload, lack of support for work tools and specialised training for health staff, as well as the physical conditions for hospital services, hinder the provision of quality services for children and adolescents.

The Director of the Psychiatry Clinic, Mr. Faton Kutllovci thanked the OI for the attention it gave to this department, precisely on Mental Health Day, and mentioned which OI recommendations have been implemented so far. He also requested the OI’s support to organize meetings with the media regarding the importance of mental health, where according to him, the media should not present the details of suicide cases, because this is negatively affecting the population in general.

The Ombudsman emphasized that the mental health of children and adolescents is the foundation of a healthy society and caring for them is an investment in the future of the country.