Pandemic Triggered ‘Avalanche’ of Kids and Teens With Mental Health Problems — But They Have Nowhere to Go

By  Megan Redshaw

Medical experts across the country say the mental health of children deteriorated during the pandemic — with a large number of children taking up beds in emergency rooms due to a shortage of placements, providers and resources to combat the crisis.

 Since the onset of the pandemic, Children’s hospitals throughout the country have seen a “meteoric” rise in the number of children who need mental health help.

To make matters worse, hospitals that struggled to meet the demand for mental health services before the pandemic are now dealing with even fewer resources — like hospital beds, providers, therapists and counseling — thanks to COVID.

Mental health among young people deteriorated during the pandemic when cabin fever increased family conflicts and closed schools left children isolated from activities and their peers.

According to The Washington Post, from June of last year to late spring 2021, an average of five children each week were admitted to the medical school’s teaching hospital at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, for overdoses of acetaminophen, opiates, antidepressants and Ritalin.

Normally, the hospital sees only five kids a month.

In May, Children’s Hospital in Colorado declared a “state of emergency” as kids being treated for anxiety doubled, depression numbers tripled and substance abuse and eating disorders increased compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“We really have never seen anything like this rapid growth in kids presenting with mental health problems and the severity of those problems,” said Jenna Glover, director of psychology training at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “I’ve never seen this in my entire career.”

Other hospitals saw even bigger increases. In January, Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, saw a 300% increase in the number of behavioral health emergency admissions since April 2020.

In January through April 2021, behavioral health emergency department visits were up 72% over the same time period two years ago, the hospital said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts during February and March of 2021 were more than 50% higher for teen girls compared to 2019, and more than 4% higher for boys.

“In the last year, there’s been an avalanche of very severely depressed and anxious children and adolescents,” said San Francisco child psychiatrist Michelle Guchereau. It’s “heartbreaking” and “overwhelming” to have to turn some away, she said.

From April to October 2020, U.S. hospitals saw a 31% increase in 12- to 17-year-old kids seeking help for their mental health, and a 24% increase for kids ages 5 to 11.

In March of this year, Seattle Children’s Hospital reported seeing one or two patients every night for attempted suicide. The hospital boarded kids in the emergency department because there were no pediatric psychiatric beds available.

A Massachusetts state report showed 39% of pediatric patients who came to the ER for mental health issues in 2020 took up beds in the emergency department due to unavailability of pediatric beds.

During the pandemic, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago reached what Dr. Jennifer Hoffmann, an emergency medicine physician, called a “crisis point.” There were so many mental health-related emergency room visits it activated a response usually reserved for disaster management.

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Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-pandemic-kids-teens-mental-health-problems/