Concern for children’s mental health grows
BERLIN — Psychiatrists, psychologists and pediatricians in Germany have voiced growing alarm that school closings, social restrictions and other precautions are magnifying the fear, disruption and stress of the pandemic among Germany’s 13.7 million children and teenagers, raising the prospect of a future mental health crisis.
“We don’t have any longterm studies yet, but there’s lots of anecdotal evidence of a crisis-driven rise in hospitalizations and overflowing psychologists’ practices,” said Julia Asbrand, a professor of child and youth psychology at Berlin’s Humboldt University.
A recent survey by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf found that about one in three children is suffering from pandemic-related anxiety or depression or is exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms like headaches or stomach aches. Children from poorer and immigrant families are disproportionately affected, according to the survey.
The second major lockdown in Germany started before Christmas. Students in grades 1-3 were allowed to return to classrooms last week with reduced class sizes and limited
lessons. The government hopes to ease further restrictions in coming weeks and has said that the re-opening of all schools is a top priority.
However, there’s concern the country is slipping into a third wave of infections due to more contagious variants of the virus. Virologists have repeatedly said it is still unclear to what extent the virus spreads from children attending school into homes and communities. More than 2 million people have contracted the virus in Germany and almost 70,000 have died of covid-19, although only 10 under the age of
20, according to the country’s disease control center.
Even though children are not at as much risk of severe covid-19 complications as older adults, they may be more vulnerable to the collateral mental health effects of the pandemic, according to experts.
An analysis by German health insurer DAK regarding youth psychology, which was obtained by German news agency dpa, showed that the number of children and teenagers hospitalized for psychiatric treatment in Berlin almost doubled during the first half of 2020, when schools were closed for over two months during the country’s first lockdown, compared with the first six months of 2019.
The statistic underscores the psychological strain the pandemic is putting on young people but does not illustrate the scope of the problem, Christoph Correll, the director of child and youth psychiatry at Berlin’s Charite hospital, told dpa.
Many children’s psychological problems are going undetected while parents are overwhelmed and teachers, social workers and pediatricians don’t have regular contact with students, clients and patients, experts warn.
Asbrand, together with other professionals in the field, wrote an open letter to the government this month to push for youth needs to get better addressed in the ongoing health crisis and prioritized when society reopens.
An immediate action government authorities could take to help mitigate possible problems would be to allow groups to gather for school and youth sports, in line with hygiene and distancing precautions.
“We all don’t know yet how this is going to develop longterm, but we must focus on youth mental health now,” she said.