Eighteen adults referred for psychiatric treatment abroad from Faroe Islands

From 2019 to 2024, the psychiatric services have referred 18 adults for evaluation or treatment abroad. During the same period, the child and adolescent psychiatry department referred 11 children and young people for similar purposes.

These figures were provided by Margit Stórá, the Minister of Health, in response to a question posed by Liljuna Weihe, a member of the Parliament, who inquired about the number of individuals sent abroad for psychiatric care.

Patients are sent to Denmark for specialized treatments that are unavailable in the Faroe Islands, according to the Minister. Furthermore, children with physical illnesses are also sent to Denmark for treatment. In total, there were 762 referrals from 2020 to 2023, which includes the children referred by the child and adolescent psychiatry department.

The hospital system does not know how many individuals have voluntarily pursued after-school programs or treatment institutions in Denmark.

In financial terms, the hospital system allocated 2 million kroner to Region Hovedstaden-Psykiatri in 2021, followed by 1.6 million kroner in 2022, and 6 million kroner in 2023 for these treatments. Additional expenses include travel costs, accommodation at the Tórshavn patient hotel, and other costs related to evaluations or treatments carried out outside Region Hovedstaden-Psykiatri, as stated by Margit Stórá.