Students, discomfort is growing: “Ambulances at school for panic attacks”

The lack of air, the heart racing, the feeling of breathlessness in class. And the ambulance that arrives called by the worried teachers. In some schools it even happens twice a month, mostly due to anxiety or panic attacks. Never like this year for anyone. The alarm came from a Minghetti student during the discussion on employment, which she said happens to them almost every day. This is not the case and fortunately.

«It happens that you call the ambulance, but certainly not often: once every two weeks could be a plausible figure. We have cases of anxiety crises, kids being treated for anxious-depressive problems – observes the principal of Minghetti Roberto Gallingani – it is a reality that the school must deal with. From this year the psychologists have gone from one to two, we have a listening service coordinated by one of our teachers. There are also two students who have the task of intercepting the needs of their classmates in an equal exchange.” And from high schools to technical institutes it happens almost everywhere.

At Artistico Arcangeli, “the ambulance can arrive a couple of times a month”, explains the manager Maria Grazia Diana. «When kids arrive with anxiety attacks we first try to make them breathe in a bag, as they taught us, but then if the hyperventilation doesn’t go away we call 118. With the doctor Stefano Costa, director of developmental psychiatry and psychotherapy at the local health authority, we have organised, supported by Rotary, online meetings with families to understand how anxiety arises.” Also following Costa’s lessons are the families of Copernico, where since the beginning of the school year an emergency vehicle has been called 7-8 times only due to psychological distress.

“Even episodes of self-harm”

«We are not doctors, maybe they are not always panic attacks – explains the manager Fernanda Vaccaro – but it may happen that once the family has been notified they decide together to call the ambulance. Then we also strengthened the psychological service, especially the orientation and reorientation service. Often they don’t come to school and they are the ones who tell us that the cause of the absence is psychological.”

If it was Covid that caused youth distress to explode, 4 years later the problem shows no signs of abating. «For us – admits the manager of Manfredi Tanari Angelica Bignami – this is the year in which we experience the greatest difficulty in managing discomfort. Not only anxiety crises, but also episodes of self-harm. We also have a psychological help desk, but at least 4-5 times since the beginning of the year the ambulance has arrived.”

“Crises are almost daily”

It is difficult to understand the causes, between relational distress and performance anxiety. «I believe that the issue of performance has something to do with it – observes the director of the Sabin high school Rossella Fabbri – even in a school like ours that doesn’t evaluate simple performance. I don’t have exact numbers, but it also happened this month that we called 118. And in any case we deal with panic attacks and anxiety attacks in all their nuances almost every day. We have a specially trained listening service, but sometimes specialist input becomes necessary.”

Even the principal Roberto Fiorini, who has worked in schools for half a century, sees the phenomenon on the increase. «Most of the time we alert the parents who then decide what to do. But the school alone as an institution is finding it increasingly difficult to deal with these problems.”