{"id":53655,"date":"2020-04-10T11:23:46","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T08:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/?p=53655"},"modified":"2020-05-07T11:36:27","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T08:36:27","slug":"coronavirus-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/coronavirus-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: Impact on Young People with Mental Health Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has had\u00a0a huge impact not just on our health\u00a0and\/or economic situation, but on our mental health as well. For those who\u00a0<strong>struggled\u00a0with their mental health before the coronavirus, this situation has been all the more challenging<\/strong>. Fear of the unknown, uncertainty, social distancing and loss of\u00a0access to mental health support might increase their\u00a0level of stress and anxiety. For this reason, it is fundamental to pay attention to those experiencing mental health problems and to give them the support they need.<\/p>\n<p>The UK-based organisation YoungMinds\u00a0carried out a survey at the end of March to enquire about the effects of the pandemic on young people with mental health problems.\u00a0<strong>2,111 young people between the ages of 13 and 25 participated in the survey<\/strong>, all of whom sought\u00a0mental health support prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of all the respondents, 51%\u00a0agreed that the coronavirus had somewhat of a negative impact on their mental health, and 32%\u00a0stated that their mental health had\u00a0become much worse due to the pandemic. Only 9% suggested that the condition of their mental health had remained the same.<\/p>\n<p>According to the results, the following factors\u00a0had the greatest impact on\u00a0their mental health:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>concerns about their family\u2019s health: many of the respondents were<strong>\u00a0anxious about the health of their family<\/strong>, and feared\u00a0being responsible for cross-infection<\/li>\n<li><strong>school and university closures<\/strong>: schools are a safe and stable environment for many young people, and the loss of it can cause\u00a0<strong>increased levels of stress<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>loss of routine<\/strong>: due to self-isolation, many respondents were unable to take part in day-to-day activities which offered important coping mechanisms for them<\/li>\n<li>loss of social connections: many of the participants<strong>\u00a0missed being physically close to their friends<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The survey also examined the respondent\u2019s ability to access mental health support during self-isolation. More than half of the respondents had received mental health support in the three months prior to the pandemic, and\u00a0<strong>74% of these young people were still\u00a0accessing some form of mental health support.<\/strong>\u00a0However, the level of support they received wasn&#8217;t always consistent with that which they had received\u00a0before the restrictions. For instance, in many cases face-to-face support was cancelled and moved online, which proved less effective. Many respondents stated that they were unable to talk to their therapists honestly or openly\u00a0because they were afraid\u00a0their family members might overhear\u00a0their sessions. Some participants also suggested that rising demand made it harder to contact helplines.<\/p>\n<p>The YoungMinds\u2019s survey also asked participants about their\u00a0<strong>coping mechanisms<\/strong>\u00a0during the coronavirus crisis. According to their answers, the most useful coping mechanisms were:<strong>\u00a0face-to-face calls with their friends, watching TV\/films, exercise, learning new skills, reading, gaming, face-to-face calls with family, spending time with family, and breathing techniques<\/strong>. Social media was mentioned as both a helpful and\u00a0unhelpful coping mechanism;\u00a0these sites facilitated\u00a0contact with their friends, but also became\u00a0 &#8216;<em>a source of anxiety, especially around the news&#8217;<\/em>. The least helpful coping mechanism was reading or watching the news. Young people want to get information about what is happening, but constantly\u00a0following the news can cause increased anxiety and feelings of a loss of control.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, respondents were asked &#8216;<em>what mental health support would be most useful to them at the moment&#8217;<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>The most effective help would be face-to-face therapeutic or emotional support<\/strong>, followed by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>online and digital support<\/strong>\u00a0in any format<\/li>\n<li><strong>self-help techniques and coping strategies<\/strong>\u00a0(e.g. learning calming techniques),<\/li>\n<li>general information, guidance and advice\u00a0(e.g. practical information about COVID-19 and mental health-specific advice)<\/li>\n<li><strong>advice on\u00a0how to help others<\/strong>\u00a0and the importance of friends and family (e.g. one of the respondents said &#8216;helping others might help me feel more fulfilled and purposeful.&#8217;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-url field-type-link-field field-label-above clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field-label\">External link:<\/div>\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youngminds.org.uk\/media\/3708\/coronavirus-report_march2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Coronavirus: Impact on young people with mental health needs<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-attached-files field-type-file field-label-above clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field-label\">Attached files:<\/div>\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><span class=\"file\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"file-icon\" title=\"application\/pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/childhub.org\/modules\/file\/icons\/application-pdf.png\" alt=\"\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/childhub.org\/system\/tdf\/library\/attachments\/coronavirus-report_march2020.pdf?file=1&amp;type=node&amp;id=42727\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" type=\"application\/pdf; length=2415405\">coronavirus-report_march2020.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/childhub.org\/en\/child-protection-online-library\/coronavirus-impact-young-people-mental-health-needs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">childhub.org<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Picture: pixabay.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those who\u00a0struggled\u00a0with their mental health before the coronavirus, this situation has been all the more challenging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_en","newsletter_cat-international-child-policies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmd.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}