‘They’re deeper into crisis:’ Doctors worry about mental health toll of pandemic isolation on children and teens, increased risk of suicide
Hartford CourantJan 16, 2021
As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, doctors and other mental health professionals worry about the impacts of prolonged isolation and stress on children and teens, including an increased risk of suicide.
Dr.
Rogers said before the pandemic, schools would often refer children having behavioral health issues to them for care. But with many schools operating in a hybrid or remote model, “that’s not happening as much,” he said.
“Our sense is that families are either not recognizing it, or are waiting longer,” Rogers said. “There’s this fear ... that it is risky or scary to come to the emergency department, that you might get the coronavirus. And that’s just not true.”
Before COVID-19, children who visited the emergency department for mental health reasons spent a median length of eight hours there. Now, they spend a median of 17 hours in the department, and Rogers said there are many outliers who have to spend even more time at the hospital. Anxiety, depression and self-harm are common problems among such patients, he noted.
“We’re not necessarily seeing higher volumes, or even higher percentages of patients that are with us with behavioral health issues, but they are with us longer,” he said. “The system is somewhat at capacity, meaning there’s not a lot of access to in-patient beds because most of them are full.”
Since
Rogers said three months of data “isn’t something you want to necessarily overreact to,” but they must be aware of the mental health impacts that a nearly yearlong pandemic has had on kids and teens.
“Our fear is that all the stress and isolation are increasing kids’ thoughts of suicide,” he said. “We can only tolerate or have resilience with stress for so long. We’re worried that kids are starting to be overwhelmed.”
More anxiety, depression
“Compared with 2019, the proportion of mental health–related visits for children aged 5–11 and 12–17 years increased approximately 24% and 31%, respectively,” researchers said, in a report.
In October, Gov.
“In terms of youth suicide, we are exactly where we were last year at 10 kids,” said
It’s not just the unknowns of the pandemic and loss of social interaction that are affecting children negatively, according to multiple health care professionals. Political tensions and racial injustice are also weighing heavily on people of all ages.
For children, whose brains are not yet full developed or capable of adult-level reasoning, feelings of hopelessness day after day can seem “even more insurmountable,” explained
“We’re 10 months into this. People were prepared for kids to be anxious, to have some disruption,” she said. “But the level of depression and anxiety that they are seeing is something that they were not prepared for.”
“Many of the school districts in our urban centers ... are closed,” she said. “That has enormous impact in and of itself, particularly for family and kids who can’t access support resources as easily in other ways.”
‘It’s OK to not feel OK’
According to the state’s most recent update, almost 47% of Connecticut’s school districts were primarily online-only from
Dr.
“Connecticut is a state with some of the highest disparities between its cities and towns in the country. What school districts have in terms of resources, staffing, personnel, is really different,” he said. “It really brings up issues of equity.”
In an effort to close the digital divide, Gov.
“We’ve seen a lot of amazingly resilient families,” she said. “But ... it’s a lot like pushing a big boulder up a hill.”
Keder, the developmental and behavioral pediatrician, said there are a number of signs parents and guardians should be on the lookout for in children and teens. Withdrawal, spending most of their time alone in their room in the dark and ceasing to communicate with friends are all “big ones,” he said, along with sleep and appetite changes. Younger children struggling with mental health may be uncharacteristically irritable and cranky for extended periods.
Professionals also said children tend to model how the adults near them handle stress and anxiety, and it is beneficial for parents and guardians to reach out for help if they themselves are struggling.
“If we think about emotional and behavioral health on a pain scale from 0 to 10 ... people develop a mentality of saying, ‘I’m not an 8 or 9 out of 10, I don’t need anything.’ But that’s kind of like saying, ‘I don’t need to see a doctor because I haven’t had a heart attack yet,’” Keder said. “We want to think about how we can be more preventative.”
Keder added: “It’s OK to not feel OK right now, and if you are even moderately worried, don’t wait. You deserve to have someone to talk to. ... We all deserve that.”
He also suggested unplugging from social media, and reaching out to relatives and friends through phone conversations for deeper social connections.
“If we take care of ourselves, we can show our kids how to do that, too. Facebook can wait. Twitter can wait.
“Kids have had to really isolate from their peers ... [and] have experienced grief and loss,” she said. “They’ve dealt with so much stress that no one could have imagined. It is something that they can definitely get through. It’s just going to take some time.”
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