Children Going to Hospital with Mental Health Problems Jumps 50 Per Cent Since Start of Pandemic: Report

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Victoria Friedman

The number of children who went to Accident and Emergency in England suffering from severe mental health problems increased by more than 50 per cent since the beginning of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

An investigation by The Telegraph newspaper and published on Sunday found that there was a 57 per cent increase in children presenting at hospital A&E wards in May 2019 — before the pandemic hit British shores — where there were 1,428 cases, compared to May of this year where there were 2,243 child patients.

In some parts of the country, referrals for mental health services via the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) had increased by more than one-third. Some of the issues found on the rise in young people include self-harm, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders.

Specialists speaking to the newspaper said that youngsters had been adversely affected by the lack of interaction with other children and the long bouts of school closures since March 2020.

Such reports have become somewhat common during the era of the Chinese virus.

Just earlier this month, it was revealed that youngsters had been prescribed a record-number of antidepressants, increasing more than one-fifth in five years. A rise in prescriptions was almost equally high for children aged five to 11 (20 per cent) as it was for those aged over 11 (23 per cent). Again, specialists and campaigners have pointed to the closure of schools and lockdowns increasing the pressure on children.

Earlier reports have also drawn connections between the three lockdowns on England and a rise in prescriptions of antidepressants for children. Mental health pharmacist Beryl Navti said in June: “Antidepressants are prescribed for both depression and anxiety disorders, and if we are saying that levels of anxiety increased amongst some young people during these periods, it makes sense that there would have been a corresponding increase in prescribed medication.”

Medics on the ground had also collected widely reported and at times troubling anecdotal evidence of an increase in children in a mental health crisis going to A&E. Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary had written in February that before the pandemic, children were presenting at emergency wards suffering from mental health problems twice a week, with that figure now being closer to twice a day. Some children as young as 10 had tried to commit suicide by overdose or otherwise self-harmed, with one patient being eight years old.

Some mental health specialists had revealed in June 2021 that very young children were unable to adapt to post-lockdown socialisation, experiencing problems interacting with other children or making friends in what was described as “locked-in trauma”. A specialist had described children as young as five having anxiety, and one child even experiencing a panic attack after playing with friends.

While findings from a multi-university study claim in July that nearly five times as many children died from suicide than from the Chinese virus during the first year of the pandemic, saying: “The risk of removal of [children and young people] from their normal activities across education and social events may prove a greater risk than that of SARS-CoV-2 itself.”

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