Page 4 - Healthcare News Mar/Apr 2021

MENTAL HEALTH
Youth in Crisis
Pandemic Ratchets Up the Stress on Kids, Teenagers
BAy JOSEPH BEDNAR
lane Burgess began by stating the obvious. “It’s not normal for kids to be home all the
time.”
As clinic director of the BestLife Emotional
Health & Wellness Center, a program of MHA
Inc., Burgess is one of many healthcare profes- sionals keenly invested in how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted
young people. And the picture is worrisome.
“They like to be out. They like to socialize. Most kids like to be with
friends,” she said. “COVID forced isolation on a lot of people; they haven’t been able to go to school, to socialize, to be involved with activities they once loved, like sports. Community spaces haven’t been open.”
It’s not surprising, she added, that this isolation has contributed to an uptick in anxiety, depression, frustration, and a tendency to act out in negative ways.
Indeed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between April and October 2020, hospital emergency departments saw
a rise in the share of total visits from childen for mental-health needs. Nationwide numbers on suicide deaths in 2020 are still unclear, but anec- dotal evidence suggests an uptick.
But here’s the less obvious reality, Burgess noted: while the pandemic may be (and that’s may be) on its last legs and schools and other gather- ing places are slowly opening back up, that doesn’t mean the stresses of the past year will just fade away.
“Kids are excited to go back and see their friends and have some sense of structure, to be in society again,” she told HCN. “But there are defi- nitely a lot of adjustments to be made.”
When COVID struck, she noted, the shifts were quick and unplanned
4 WWW.HEALTHCARENEWS.COM MARCH/APRIL 2021