Youth will feel lasting effects of pandemic

The jury is still out on how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect child and youth development in the long term, but there are some clues, one mental health expert says.

“It is too early to know the exact impacts, but it is not a stretch to piece together what we do know and have concerns,” said child psychologist Clair Crooks, director of the Centre for School Mental Health at Western University.

The centre runs the Mindup program and has been working with the London District Catholic school board for the past five years, Crooks said.

Mindup teaches students how their brains work so they can better deal with their emotions and foster resiliency. The centre also developed the Healthy Relationships program, which targets violence prevention.

A recent study by the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children found that “a significant proportion” of healthy school-aged children experienced depression, anxiety, irritability and decreased attention spans during the pandemic.

“We know that the impact of social isolation and loneliness can include elevated risk for depression and anxiety even a decade later,” Crooks said.

“If you have anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder going into the pandemic, obviously that is going to be a much harder experience for you. It will look different for different kids depending on their age and development or if you have a parent who is an essential worker, or health-care worker on the front line.”

There are also students “who have drifted away” from the education system over the course of the pandemic that school boards may have lost track of, she said.

“Those are the ones we need to be worried about.”

LGBTQ+ youth and newcomers who have had supports taken away could be at particular risk, Crooks said.

“It's the connection to others that allows children to develop optimally,” she said.

“Relationships and violence affect our brain architecture. It affects our stress physiology. We have to get past this idea that relationships are this warm, fuzzy thing that would be nice to focus on, but heck, we've got to get kids back to school and get them caught up.”

A good start after the pandemic will be to get students reconnected to schools and to each other, she said.

“(Do that and) the rest will follow,” she said. “They can get caught up on math and reading, which for me feels like the easy part.”

Everyone can play a mentoring role to connect with youth, particularly those who have been away from school-based programming, she said.

“It's going to be those day-to-day behaviours of educators taking the time for that personal check-in,” Crooks said.