By 2018, suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24.
Health professionals, who are dedicated to the care of 73 million American children and adolescents, have witnessed soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents, and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has prompted the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) to join together to declare a National Emergency in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Nationally, adolescent depression and anxiety — already at crisis levels before the pandemic — have surged amid the isolation, disruption and hardship of COVID-19. Children and families across our country have experienced enormous adversity and disruption, writes the American Academy of Pediatrics. The inequities that result from structural racism have contributed to disproportionate impacts on children from communities of color.
In the declaration, the groups emphasize that young people in communities of color have been impacted by the pandemic more than others and how the ongoing struggle for racial justice is inextricably tied to the worsening mental health crisis.
The crisis of student mental health is much vaster than we realize
Nationally, adolescent depression and anxiety — already at crisis levels before the pandemic — have surged amid the isolation, disruption and hardship of COVID-19.https://t.co/iIzQoV6at0
— ELB (@ebrownl33) December 5, 2022
And, this worsening crisis in child and adolescent mental health is inextricably tied to the stress brought on by COVID-19 and the ongoing struggle for racial justice and represents an acceleration of trends observed prior to 2020.
Rates of childhood mental health concerns and suicide rose steadily between 2010 and 2020 and by 2018 suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24.
“Young people have endured so much throughout this pandemic and while much of the attention is often placed on its physical health consequences, we cannot overlook the escalating mental health crisis facing our patients,” AAP President Lee Savio Beers, M.D., FAAP, said in a statement. “Today’s declaration is an urgent call to policymakers at all levels of government — we must treat this mental health crisis like the emergency it is.”
The pandemic brought on physical isolation, ongoing uncertainty, fear and grief.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers quantified that toll in several reports. They found between March and October 2020, emergency department visits for mental health emergencies rose by 24% for children ages 5-11 years and 31% for children ages 12-17 years. In addition, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts increased nearly 51% among girls ages 12-17 years in early 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.
In other research, the CDC found nearly 45 percent of high school students were so persistently sad or hopeless in 2021 they were unable to engage in regular activities. Almost 1 in 5 seriously considered suicide, and 9 percent of the teenagers surveyed by the CDC tried to take their lives during the previous 12 months.
In short, the pandemic has intensified this crisis: across the country mental health professionals have witnessed dramatic increases in Emergency Department visits for all mental health emergencies including suspected suicide attempts.
References:
- https://www.aap.org/en/advocacy/child-and-adolescent-healthy-mental-development/aap-aacap-cha-declaration-of-a-national-emergency-in-child-and-adolescent-mental-health
- https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/17718
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/12/05/crisis-student-mental-health-is-much-vaster-than-we-realize/