by Tiasha Sen, a student at Nonsuch High School Coronavirus lockdowns are having detrimental effects on mental health in young people. Mental health researchers have warned that depriving young people of social interaction and education will not only lead to a deterioration of mental health but may also result in behavioural and cognitive problems later in […]
Professor Ann John is Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry, Swansea University Medical School. Any death in a young person by suicide is deeply tragic and best understood by looking at each individuals’ circumstances. It is however important to remember that suicide is not inevitable, if risk factors at the individual, group and population level […]
Professor Ann John is Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry, Swansea University Medical School. The loss of any child through suicide is deeply painful. Although suicide in young people is rare, with lower rates than in other age groups, rates have been rising in adolescents in England and Wales since 2010. Suicide is the leading […]
by Dr Matthew Owens, Department of Psychology, University of Exter. The overall risk of harm from SARS-CoV-2 is extremely small, yet the response to COVID-19 has already had a devastating toll on the lives of children, a disease whose transmission they are unlikely to be driving,1 2 and one they rarely suffer from. Some 80% […]
Dr Sunil Bhopal, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics, Newcastle University Dr Delanjathan Devakumar, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Public Health, UCL Children are fortunately minimally affected by COVID-19. Despite early reports of a new inflammatory syndrome, children are much more likely to be severely unwell or die from illnesses that we consider ‘normal’, including influenza […]
Professor Ellen Townsend, University of Nottingham. 24th July 2020. Even before lockdown, self-harm (self-injury or self-poisoning, regardless of intent or motivation) was on the increase in young people1. The risk of both self-harm and suicide dramatically increases in the teenage years (the steepest increase in risk for any age group), and over the past few […]
Guest Reachwell blog: Dr Maria Loades, University of Bath. Loneliness is the painful feeling we experience when our actual social contacts are different from what we desire them to be1. In the COVID context, lockdown loneliness seems to have been a particular problem for young people, more than any other age group 2,3,4. This is […]
by Tamsin Ford Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry University of Cambridge 13/7/2020 Prior to Lockdown, specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) were under severe strain with lengthy waiting lists despite rejecting 25% of referrals.1 Only a quarter2 of school-age children with impairing mental health conditions access CAMHS, while the most commonly approached […]
by Dr Darren Moore, University of Exeter and Prof Neil Humphrey, University of Manchester Research on ‘summer learning loss’ shows a marked reduction in attainment following sustained periods of absence.1 During lockdown, schools worked quickly to make learning available remotely for the majority of pupils, but access has proven to be challenging and engagement is […]