COVID-19 called attention to global youth mental health
Tulika is right: mental health is very important – as important as physical health. This is especially true in childhood and adolescence, when we lay the foundation for our cognitive and lifelong learning capacity, our emotional intelligence and our resilience in the face of stress.
Once again, the pandemic highlighted how vulnerable children and young people are.
For kids everywhere, COVID-19 has turned lives upside down, disrupting comforting family patterns like going to school and playing outdoors. For teenagers, the blockade has deprived them of the social and peer connections that are so crucial at this time in life. And for children affected by the trauma of violence, neglect or abuse in the family, the blockade has left many behind closed doors with abusers and the support they would normally find at school and with their families and communities. COVID-19 interrupted or suspended essential mental health services in 93 percent of countries worldwide.
These effects add to an already worrying number. In my previous letter, I wrote about the increase in mental disorders among children under 18 – a critical period in a young person’s development. Half of all mental disorders develop before the age of 15 and 75 percent in early adulthood. Most of the 800,000 people who die by suicide each year are young, and self-harm is the second leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19.
Unfortunately, many children and young people do not seek help because of the stigma and discrimination surrounding abuse and mental suffering. Mental health is also underfunded almost everywhere and governments must do more. Less than 1 percent of health budgets in low-income countries go to mental health.
But with children and young people facing so many challenges to their mental well-being, this pandemic is also an opportunity to speak and learn about mental health among adults and children.
What needs to be done:
Young people like Tulika are crying out for support and we need to hear their concerns.
Some governments are. In Bangladesh, Georgia and India, freephone helplines provide vital care and support for children. Childline India received more than 92,000 calls for protection from abuse and violence in the first 11 days of the COVID-19 blockade, an increase of 50%.
In Kazakhstan, which has one of the highest adolescent suicide rates in the world, UNICEF launched a platform in April 2020 for individual online counseling services for teenagers, along with training and education for mental health experts in the face of anxiety. , stress and uncertainty caused by COVID-19. More than 5,000 school psychologists and mental health specialists were trained in just three months. Other programs in the country promote activities for the social connection of adolescents through peer support groups and discussions with parents, changing mental health from being stigmatized to providing understanding and care, increasing counseling and support.
Likewise, organizations around the world are working with young people to normalize the act of seeking help for mental health through proven interventions and campaigns. For example, Time to Change is ending mental health discrimination in the UK, working with teachers, school administrators and students to start conversations, deal with stigma and support young people.
We need to do more: countries need to give this issue the investment it deserves, dramatically expand mental health services and support for young people in communities and schools, and develop parenting programs to ensure that children from vulnerable families receive support and support. the protection you need at home.
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