INDIANA – WBIW is looking into the Surgeon General’s Advisory that offers recommendations for supporting the mental health of children, adolescents, and young adults.
Today we will look at the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the mental health of children and youth.
According to the report, during the pandemic, children, adolescents, and young adults face unprecedented challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed their world, including how they attend school, interact with friends, and receive health care. They missed the first days of school, months, or even years of in-person schooling, graduation ceremonies, sports competitions, playdates, and time with relatives. They and their family may have lost access to mental health care, social services, income, food, or housing. They may have had COVID-19 themselves, suffered from long COVID symptoms, or lost a loved one to the disease – it’s estimated that as of June 2021, more than 140,000 children in the US had lost a parent or grandparent caregiver to COVID-19.
Since the pandemic began, rates of psychological distress among young people, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders, have increased. Recent research covering 80,000 youth globally found that depressive and anxiety symptoms doubled during the pandemic, with 25% of youth experiencing depressive symptoms and 20% experiencing anxiety symptoms.
Negative emotions or behaviors such as impulsivity and irritability – associated with conditions such as ADHD – appear to have moderately increased. Early clinical data are also concerning: In early 2021, emergency department visits in the United States for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher for adolescent girls and 4% higher for adolescent boys compared to the same time period in early 2019.
Moreover, pandemic-related measures reduced in-person interactions among children, friends, social supports, and
professionals such as teachers, school counselors, pediatricians, and child welfare workers. This made it harder to recognize signs of child abuse, mental health concerns, and other challenges.
During the pandemic, young people also experienced other challenges that may have affected their mental and emotional wellbeing: the national reckoning over the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police officers, including the murder of George Floyd; COVID-related violence against Asian Americans; gun violence; an increasingly polarized political dialogue; growing concerns about climate change; and emotionally-charged misinformation.
Although the pandemic’s long-term impact on children and young people is not fully understood, there is some cause for optimism. According to more than 50 years of research, increases in distress symptoms are common during disasters, but most people cope well and do not go on to develop mental health disorders. Several measures of distress that increased early in the pandemic appear to have returned to pre-pandemic levels by mid-2020. Some other measures of wellbeing, such as rates of life satisfaction and loneliness, remained largely unchanged throughout the first year of the pandemic. And while data on youth suicide rates are limited, early evidence does not show significant increases.
In addition, some young people thrived during the pandemic: They got more sleep, spent more quality time with family, experienced less academic stress and bullying, had more flexible schedules, and improved their coping skills. Many young people are resilient, able to bounce back from difficult experiences such as stress, adversity, and trauma.
That said, the pandemic is ongoing, with nearly 1,000 Americans dying per day as of early December 2021. And many millions of children and youth have faced and continue to face major challenges. Importantly, the pandemic’s negative impacts, such as illness and death in families and disruptions in school and social life disproportionately impacted those who were vulnerable, to begin with, and widened disparities.
The good news is that, throughout the pandemic, many people have recognized the unprecedented need to support youth mental health and wellbeing and have taken action to do so. But there is much more to be done, and each of us has a role to play. Supporting the mental health of children and youth will require a whole-of-society effort to address longstanding challenges, strengthen the resilience of young people, support their families and communities, and mitigate the pandemic’s mental health impacts.
Here is what we must do:
- Recognize that mental health is an essential part of overall health. Mental health conditions are real, common, and treatable, and people experiencing mental health challenges deserve support, compassion, and care, not stigma and shame. Mental health is no less important than physical health. And that must be reflected in how we communicate about and prioritize mental health.
- Empower youth and their families to recognize, manage, and learn from difficult emotions. For youth, this includes building strong relationships with peers and supportive adults, practicing techniques to manage emotions, taking care of body and mind, being attentive to the use of social media and technology, and seeking help when needed. For families and caregivers, this means addressing their own mental health and substance use conditions, being positive role models for children, promoting positive relationships between children and others as well as with social media and technology, and learning to identify and address challenges early. Youth and families should know that asking for help is a sign of strength.
- Ensure that every child has access to high-quality, affordable, and culturally competent mental health care. Care should be tailored to children’s developmental stages and health needs, and available in primary care practices, schools, and other community-based settings. It’s particularly important to intervene early so that emerging symptoms don’t turn into crises.
What Young People Can Do
Since many of the challenges young people face are outside of their control, we need a whole-of-society effort to support children’s mental health and wellbeing from birth to adulthood.
That said, below are important steps children and young people themselves can take to protect, improve, and advocate for their mental health and that of their family, friends, and neighbors:
- Remember that mental health challenges are real, common, and treatable. Struggling with your mental health does not mean you are broken or that you did something wrong. Mental health is shaped by many factors, including biology and life experiences, and there are many ways mental health challenges can be addressed.
- Ask for help. Find trusted adults, friends, or family members to talk to about stressful situations. For example, if you or someone you know is being bullied, tell a trusted adult. If you are struggling to manage negative emotions, reach out to a school nurse or counselor, a teacher, a parent or caregiver, a coach, a faith leader, or someone else you look up to and trust. Look into therapy or counseling resources to get support when something causes distress and interferes with your life. Reaching out to others can be hard and takes courage, but it is worth the effort and reminds us we are not alone.
- Invest in healthy relationships. Social connection is a powerful buffer to stress and a source of wellbeing. But too often in our fast-paced lives, quality time with people gets crowded out. Make space in your life for the people you love. Spend time with others regularly, in person, and virtually.
- Find people who support and care about you and have open and honest conversations with them about your feelings. Get involved in group activities, such as recreation and outdoor activities, afterschool programs, and mentorship programs.
- Find ways to serve. Volunteering in your community and helping others can be a great way to connect with people, build a sense of purpose, and develop your own sense of self-worth. Helping others when you are the one struggling can seem counterintuitive. But service is a powerful antidote to isolation, and it reminds us that we have value to add to the world.
- Learn and practice techniques to manage stress and other difficult emotions. Try to recognize situations that may be emotionally challenging for you, and come up with strategies to manage those emotions. For example, if you find it stressful to look at COVID-related news, try to check the news less often, take a break for a day or a week at a time, keep notifications off throughout the day, and avoid looking at negative stories before bed.
- Take care of your body and mind. Stick to a schedule, eat well, stay physically active, get quality sleep, stay hydrated, and spend time outside. And avoid substances that can ultimately make you feel tired, down, or depressed, such as alcohol, marijuana, vaping, and tobacco.
- Be intentional about your use of social media, video games, and other technologies. Here are some questions to help guide your technology use: How much time are you spending online? Is it taking away from healthy offline activities, like exercising, seeing friends, reading, and sleeping? What content are you consuming, and how does it make you feel? Are you online because you want to be, or because you feel like you have to be?
- Be a source of support for others. Talk to your family and friends about mental health, listen and be a source of support to them, and connect them to the right resources. Advocate for and contribute your ideas at the local, state, or national levels. For example, look into joining Youth Advisory Councils or mental health peer support programs in your community.
Next WBIW will look at what family members, caregivers, and others can do to help.
