The Maribor Counselling Centre for Children, Youth and Parents, the oldest institution of its kind in Slovenia, is celebrating its 70th anniversary. It helps around 2,500 individuals each year, while being subject to an ever increasing workload.

The centre, which helps children with learning, emotional, behavioural and other issues while also helping guide the parents, is one of four such institutions in Slovenia.

"The bulk of our work involves individualised treatment, diagnostic exams, counselling and therapy. In addition, we offer a lot of additional content such as anxiety management programmes, parenting skills training, study skills training, learning workshops and schools for parents," director Tadeja Batagelj told the press on Wednesday.

The centre will mark the anniversary with a series of additional lectures and workshops as well as a symposium on 20 October, which will also feature acclaimed Slovenian philosopher Renata Salecl.

Batagelj pointed out that the work intensity had picked up markedly in recent years, even more so with the Covid-19 pandemic.

She explained there were more cases of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and that learning difficulties had gone unaddressed and had become exacerbated during the lockdown.

The centre is presently operating at its limit, with its 12 counsellors unable to tend to more than 2,500 individuals a year.

Currently, the waiting time for diagnostic exams stands at between one and three months, which is still better than when seeking help through the healthcare system.