BUFFALO, N.Y. — The COVID-19 pandemic is really tough for all of us, but new research from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is revealing some troubling trends when it comes to its impact on the mental health of children.
The CDC studied emergency room visit data from March to mid-October of this year and compared it with the same time period in 2019.
Emergency room visits related to mental health increased 24% for kids between the ages of 5 and 11, and they spiked 31% among children ages 12 to 17.
"It's very important to have a sense of safety, security, and predictability," Best Self Behavioral Health President and CEO Elizabeth Woike-Ganga said. "And of course, in this time, that's really impossible."
Woike-Ganga says a lot of the anxiety and stress children are feeling during the pandemic can be triggered by fear of the unknown.
"They're worried about their family members, about their own health, about whether they're going to be able to go to school or not, whether they can re-engage in their regular activities, and the end point is uncertain as well, so that creates a lot of anxiety," Woike-Ganga said.
"That can manifest itself in self-harming behaviors, severe depression, or anxiety, which can definitely result in families needing to seek emergency care."
Woike-Ganga provided these behavioral changes for parents to look out for:
- Seeming more worried than usual
- Seeming more tearful than usual
- Changes in appetite or eating patterns
- Changes in sleeping patterns
Click HERE to read the full CDC study for yourself.