DISTRAUGHT CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS FIVE CALLING FOR HELP
A DISTRAUGHT nine-year-old boy wanting to die after losing a beloved pet.
A 12-year-old girl left to look after five siblings, including a baby, with alcoholic parents in lockdown.
A suicidal teenager alone and desperate in a tiny apartment with nothing but the clothes in her suitcase.
These are some of the heartbreaking calls being taken by Kids Helpline counsellors who fielded nearly 10,000 calls last week – including calls from 3277 kids in locked-down NSW, 2663 in Victoria and 1583 in Queensland.
Kids Helpline has doubled the number of counsellors since the start of the pandemic last March, with 200 staff trained to counsel, calm and console distraught children as young as five.
The counsellors are on duty around the clock at the frontline of a mental health epidemic among the children and teenagers growing up in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cooped-up with stressed parents and struggling with schoolwork, children are suffering unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression that is tragically leading to self-harm or suicide.
Emergencies happen five times a day, on average, when counsellors must call an ambulance, police or child safety staff to rescue a child in immediate danger of harm.
“Archie’’, who works as a counsellor at the Kids Helpline headquarters in Brisbane, recently called an ambulance to help a suicidal teenager who had been moving interstate for work but got trapped by border closures.
“She had nothing but a bag of clothes,’’ he said.
“It’s a really isolating situation. Young people are really being forgotten.’’
Archie said many children are struggling with lockdown isolation and anxiety over catching Covid-19.
“Some might be thinking about ending their life, feeling disappointed and hopeless about not achieving well at school,’’ he said.
Archie sometimes needs to take a break between “some really intense calls’’. Kids Helpline
1800 55 1800