Minors who require treatment in a mental health hospital should never be admitted to the same wards intended for adults but should have a dedicated facility, the Nationalist Party said yesterday.

Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters in Pietà, PN health spokesman Claudio Grech expressed concern that a boy under the age of 10 was recently admitted to the seclusion ward at Mount Carmel Hospital.

“Unfortunately, this highlights the fact that we as politicians, as well as society, have failed and so must work collectively to stop this practice,” Mr Grech said.

The PN spokesman said he had raised the case with Mental Health Commissioner John Cachia who promised to look into it. Mr Grech said his aim was not to score political points, acknowledging that such incidents had also occurred under PN administrations.

We as politicians, as well as society, have failed

“My aim is to raise awareness of this issue and try to reach consensus with the government on the way forward,” he said.

Mr Grech remarked that children with mental health problems should be treated in specialised institutions which will focus exclusively on their needs as minors.

He added that the country was already committing huge financial resources in sectors which were not as important, and so this issue deserved to be given proper attention. The PN spokesman said he would be asking the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Health to raise this issue in the next meeting.

Mr Grech said this would be the ideal forum to debate this issue with the involvement of experts in the field.

He said the PN would lobby for new facilities, which would also focus on the educational needs of children with mental health problems and not simply from a medical perspective.

The PN spokesman said this was yet another example of the Opposition trying to be proactive and take a constructive approach.