Last month, an ABC News affiliate in San Francisco interviewed Dr. Christine Garcia, Director of the city’s Edgewood Center for Children and Families. Dr. Garcia is in charge of 28 mental health programs for young people, and she is highly concerned about severe teenage mental health issues from loneliness and isolation caused by the extended lockdown.
On Halloween night, eight teenagers needed hospital emergency room care after attempted suicides. Dr. Garcia said the mental health programs she supervises have been overrun with increased needs for teens with severe symptoms.
She pointed out that teens need to be around friends and socialize as they are “biologically wired to be self-individuating… You’re stuck with your family all the time. All those family issues that come up during the teenage years become heightened. There’s a higher number of reports of child abuse.”
She summed up the situation by saying, “The kids have hit a wall.”
Her colleague, Liz Siliato, Director of the Edgewood Crisis Stabilization Unit in San Francisco, which handles some of the most severe mental health emergencies, pointed out that students forced to learn remotely do not have access to much-needed school counselors.
She told the ABC San Francisco affiliate that in addition to dealing with increased teenage self-harm and suicide attempts, “Now with kids at home and experiencing school through Zoom, they’re less likely to be able to reach out and those opportunities are kind of missed opportunities. And so, I think kids are going more into crisis.”
Pediatrician Dr. Jason Nagata, who is affiliated with the University of California San Francisco, is concerned with the nearly 100 percent rise in eating disorders among adolescents and young adults due to the extended lockdown and school closings. And lack of organized sports and outdoor play activity has led to substantial weight gain among teenagers.
National “Collective Trauma”
The rise in severe mental health issues due to extensive lockdowns is not just a San Francisco issue, but one ranging from coast to coast. In June, America’s Promise Alliance, the USA’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of young people, published a study with this overview:
- “While nearly all of the high school youth surveyed (92%) say they are participating in online learning opportunities, more than three-quarters (78%) are spending four or fewer hours each day in class or working on assignments.”
- “Since their school buildings closed, young people’s levels of concern about the present and future have increased, and indicators of overall health and wellbeing have suffered. For example, 30% of young people say they have more often been feeling unhappy or depressed.”
- “More than one-quarter of students (29%) say they do not feel connected at all to school adults. A similar percentage do not feel connected to classmates or to their school community. Taken together, these findings suggest that students are experiencing collective trauma and that they and their families would benefit from immediate and ongoing support for basic needs, physical and mental health, and learning opportunities. Without that support, this moment in time is likely to have lasting negative effects.”
Since this study was published in June, the situation for teenagers has worsened. On 12 November, The New York Times published the article, “Teens in COVID Isolation.” Mirroring the crisis in San Francisco, the article points out:
“The proportion of children’s emergency room visits related to mental health has increased significantly during the pandemic, highlighting concerns about the psychological effects that lockdowns and social distancing have had on youth, according to a new analysis released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
That CDC analysis, published on 13 November, reveals some draconian data on the effects of the extended lockdowns and school closings:
“Beginning in April 2020, the proportion of children’s mental health-related ED (Emergency Department) visits among all pediatric ED visits increased and remained elevated through October. Compared with 2019, the proportion of mental health-related visits for children aged 5-11 and 12-17 years increased approximately 24 percent and 31 percent respectively.”
TREND FORECAST: The long-term mental effects on society – from toddlers raised in fear and separation, youngsters banned from growing up naturally, people afraid to socialize, wedding celebrations canceled… to being prohibited to hug, kiss and cry dying parents and loved ones – is incomprehensible.
On the other side of fear is joy; Joy to the World. As two of our Top 10 Trends for 2021 illustrate, there were will be a “YOUTH REVOLUTION” that will ignite a “ROARING 2021” and beyond.