Sounding the Alarm for Children’s Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Increasingly, research confirms the negative effects of COVID-19 safety measures on the mental health of children and adolescents.[1][2][3][4][5] Saunders and colleagues 6 call for an urgent response to the increasing sustained demand for mental health services inclusive of substance use and developmental disorders.The authors' population-based cross-sectional study used linked administrative and health data to examine changes in utilization of physician-provided mental health services for 2.5 million children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years in Ontario, Canada.From March 2020 through February 2021, the authors found a rapid and sustained 10% increase in outpatient mental health service utilization by children and adolescents compared with prior rates.Similar trends were not observed for acute mental health service utilization for the same period, except for girls.The current study found striking sex differences with substantially higher rates of utilization observed for acute inpatient psychiatric hospitalization and outpatient mental health services for school-aged and adolescent girls.The authors hypothesized that there would be a large, rapid shift toward virtual care that would be sustained throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and that utilization would vary by diagnostic groups and age.Thus, they examined variations in utilization of virtual care by diagnostic groups and adoption of telehealth as a modality for treatment.Rapid major shifts in utilization of virtual visits occurred very early during the COVID-19 pandemic and were sustained at approximately 70% of treatment.6 Increased rates of substance use disorders and psychotic disorders occurred early and were sustained at levels higher than expected, although they represent a small proportion of visits.The largest increases were noted for mood and anxiety disorders (74.7%), psychosis (73.2%), substance use (83.6%), social problems (64.6%), and neurodevelopmental disorders (69.8%).Saunders and colleagues 6 join the growing number of investigators confirming the substantial mental health outcomes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in youth and a need to respond to the increasing demand for services.The authors highlight the need for a systematic response to address increasing mental health needs, including variations in demand by age and sex differences noted across studies.[6][7][8] The results of this population-based study suggest that youth in Ontario are experiencing increasing psychological distress that underlies the 10% greater utilization of physician-provided outpatient mental health services.Although this study highlighted increasing mental health service needs for children and adolescents during the COVID-19

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