New UNICEF Innocenti report considers past crisis’ solutions to address children’s mental health throughout COVID-19

Date: 23rd August 2021
Category: COVID-19, Mental health

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A new report by UNICEF Innocenti reviews the impact of past crises (such as natural disasters and the HIV epidemic) on youth mental health with the aim of informing responses to the current crisis. 

‘Mind Matters: lessons from past crises for child and adolescent mental health during COVID-19’ finds that children and young people are at elevated risks of anxiety and depression, trauma, loneliness and isolation, suicide, and loss, and this can have acute and long-lasting effects on child and adolescent mental health. Interventions to address these adverse impacts include rapid screening, parenting programmes, community and school-based programmes, and using digital tools and platforms. However, these interventions must be mindful of ages and stages as younger children may struggle to process the temporal nature of the pandemic, whereas older children understand the implications of the pandemic more fully, which can elevate anxieties. 

Click here to read ‘Mind Matters: lessons from past crises for child and adolescent mental health during COVID-19’.