EFFECTS ON CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH CAUSED BY THE PANDEMIC

Information received by the Western Health Trust has shown that children as young as 5 have been admitted to hospital for mental health issues including self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

The new information also reveals that there was an 11% rise in those under 18 attending hospital for serious mental health issues, in the first year of the pandemic.

473 children attended hospital for these reasons in the year prior to the pandemic with around 1 in 7 under the age of 14.

In the figures recorded between March 2020 and February 2021, 527 children were admitted with around 1 in 5 under the age of 14.

The figures also have shown that the trend is continuing to rise with a further 333 admissions between March and the end of August this year.

The Western Health Trust advised that there was no way of identifying a category of "serious mental health issue", but determined its search via those presenting with an overdose, self-harm or mental health issue.

Many would argue that it has been a direct cause of the impact of the pandemic and the effect it has had on young people in Northern Ireland.

However, Dr Raymond Nethercott, the officer for Ireland at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health explained, “I wish I was surprised by your findings. They reflect very much the experience of paediatric teams right across Northern Ireland and, for me, represent the tip of a very large iceberg.”

Dr Nethercott agrees that the pandemic has played a part in the issue but states that, “this was already a problem and we have not done nearly enough to understand and fix it."

So as the effects of the pandemic begin to become clearer, what will the government do about it and where will we go from here?