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 […]
By Prof Cathy Creswell, University of Oxford Prof Eamon McCrory, University College London Prof Essi Viding, University College London Prof Ian Goodyer, University of Cambridge. 8 July 2020 Between 50% and 75% of all mental health problems seen over the life-course have their origins in the first two decades of life. Prior to the […]
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge Most children and young people have missed at least 10 weeks of face-to-face schooling, and many students (especially teenagers) are still unable to return to their classrooms. This has created vast inequalities in education, with a large number of […]
Professor Uta Frith DBE FRS FBA FmedSci Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London As this has never happened before we have to draw on evidence from a time when school education was not compulsory. The simple facts are that free universal education provided such obvious benefits, for health, for social equality and […]