Charity tells of virus impact on children

A child protection charity is holding one counselling session on average every five minutes for young people worried about their mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus lockdown.

Childline – which is run by the NSPCC – says 16,644 sessions were given to children with mental health concerns between the start of lockdown on March 23 and May 10.

This was more than half of the total 30,868 sessions delivered during the seven weeks – equating to around 339 sessions a day, or roughly one every five minutes.

Over the 2018-19 financial year, a total of 71,283 counselling sessions were held for children with mental health concerns – meaning the service has delivered 43% of last year's total mental health counselling sessions in that time.

The charity say 36% of sessions mentioned concerns about mental or emotional health, 13% touched on suicidal thoughts and feelings, 12% on family relationships, 6% on self-harm, and 4% on sex, relationships and puberty. Dame Esther Rantzen, pictured, who founded Childline, said: "Those children who are living in homes which are not safe – where there is violence, addiction or abuse – are finding it especially difficult during lockdown. It is imperative that we are there, particularly for those whose usual support networks are not in place and have nowhere else to turn.

"We are urging the public to support our Still Here for Children appeal so we can continue to support our young people whose lives have changed overnight."