[Claire Halliday]

It’s official – a study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney has shown that there are increasing numbers of Australian children and adolescents presenting to Australian hospitals with mental health issues since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The rise in numbers is a painful reminder of the incredibly serious and enduring negative impact that young people have experienced in the last few years – but, of course, for parents, grandparents and other extended family members living with the reality of teenagers and children going through mental health struggles, there are real people at the heart of those statistics.
There is some good news in the data, though – although numbers of emergency department visits and inpatient admissions did peak at the height of COVID lockdowns, they did drop off after restrictions eased. But, sadly, the level they are at now is still higher than pre-pandemic.
The research is one of the first studies to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health-related hospital presentations in children and adolescents Australia-wide and expand upon a previous study by the same researchers, who analysed similar data for this age group in Sydney between January 2020 and February 2021.
According to the lead author, Dr Jahid Khan, from UNSW Medicine & Health, “mental health issues are the leading health concern for children and adolescents in Australia”. And with uncertainty about the future, illness, social isolation, financial stress, and disruption to education and life routines, it seems that today’s young people do have a lot on their minds.

Is your own family coping with the mental health issues of one of its younger members? Do you feel that there is enough support for families who are affected?
What help and support would you like to see for teenagers, children – and their family members – who are dealing with mental health issues?

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