YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

236 The seriousness of the stress negatively impacting the youth is also shared by USA where authorities categorized it as epidemic, resulting in both economic and non-economic costs. Keating (2017) regarded stress as one of the main factors of premature mortality, a finding reported to be found among the working active population apso by Case and Deaton (2015). The fact that “something” is happening in Slovenia, which is in- creasingly reminiscent of an epidemic, is shown by official data from several institutions, which show that in the last 25 years the onset of mental illness by the age of 18 has increased by 64% (NIJZ, 2018 ). Ac- cording to Hojka Gregorič Kumperščak, president of the Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Slovenia and child psychiatrist at the University Medical Center Maribor, the onset of serious illnesses is mov- ing to an earlier age. Thus, depression is already evident among primary school children, and there is an increasing number of self-injurious be- haviours. Early forms of morbidity, such as personality disorders and psychoses, also occur earlier (in Zupanič, 2016: “More and more mental problems of children and adolescents”, Delo, 24 April 2016). A similar picture could also be found in data reported by the National Public Health Office (NIJZ). In the publication Mental Health of Children and Adolescents, authors state that in 2015 there were 73% more pre- scriptions for drugs to treat mental disorders in adolescents aged from 15 to 19 than in 2008 (NIJZ, 2018). Gregorič Krumperščak, similar to Keating, believes that the increase of these disorders could be attributed to “changes in society that are caus- ing more and more stress”, in particular due to a decrease in space and resources for partner and family relationships. Parents are increasingly unavailable, also because in the name of greater competitiveness, the working day has become more flexible or destabilized. More and more parents are exhausted, scared, and dissatisfied due to greater workloads, competition, and insecurity, which makes it difficult for them to be “good” parents. Dr. Anica Mikuš Kos from Slovenian Philanthropy stated that we strive to “correct” children to be more efficient, but neglect the human dimension of caring for children, including the importance of free play outdoors (in Ivelja, 2017: “Children’s mental health: more and