On 11 April 2023, Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina and Deputy Ombudsman Dr Jože Ruparčič, who is in charge of children’s rights protection, participated at the 33rd Children’s Parliament at the National Assembly, where young members of parliament discussed the mental health of children and adolescents.

The Ombudsman is glad to learn that this issue, which is a complex subject, was tackled by children and adolescents, since he is convinced that mental health needs to be discussed openly because neglecting it can have grave consequences both for the quality of an individual’s life and for society as a whole. On the other hand, he regrets that this subject needs to be opened at all, since he believes that adults should handle the matters in such a way that children will not have to talk about such subjects at all. The Ombudsman thus promises young parliamentarians that he will deliver their messages from this debate to those who need to hear them and who have a duty to plan social life so that people do not find themselves in emotional distress, especially not children and teenagers.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ombudsman has received increasing numerous reports about the deterioration of children’s health, both physical and mental, and since there are no appropriate and absolutely insufficient capacities for the treatment of children and teenagers with mental health problems, in September 2021 he devoted to this subject the Days of Mental Health event, which he prepares alongside the Judicial Training Centre at the Ministry of Justice. The purpose of said conference was to encourage different professionals, including judges, doctors, social workers and lawyers, experts, and non-governmental organisations, to collaborate and network even more actively to make the treatment of children and teenagers as efficient as possible. The Ombudsman called upon policymakers to listen to useful suggestions for the improvement of the situation in this field and, most importantly, to realise them. Since then he has met several times with people responsible for this field at the Ministry of Health and he continues to encourage bodies for which he has the authority to move things forward.

As always, the Ombudsman recommends listening and paying attention to fellow human beings, since we can save someone’s day or even life this way.