Psychologists, pediatricians, and psychiatrists in Germany have expressed growing alarm that school closures, social and physical restrictions, as well as other safety measures are amplifying the fear, disturbance, and stress of the pandemic among the 13.7 million children and teens in Germany, raising the prospect of the mental health crisis in the future.
According to child and youth psychology professor Julia Asbrand from Berlin's Humboldt University, they don't have long-term research yet although there are lots of anecdotal evidence showing a crisis-driven increase in hospital confinements and overflowing practices of psychologists.
A study by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf showed that roughly one in three children is suffering from anxiety or depression related to a pandemic, or is showing psychosomatic symptoms like stomach aches or headaches.
Children who come from poorer households are found to be disproportionately affected, the survey showed. More so, children, in general, are greatly affected by this year-long pandemic as shown on the ABC News video below.
Children and COVID-19
According to a report from Northwest Arkansas News, the second major lockdown in Germany began before Christmas. Students in grades one to three were allowed to go back to their classrooms a week ago with smaller sizes of classes and limited lessons.
Furthermore, the government is hoping to relax further restrictions in the weeks ahead and has said that the resumption of classes is a top priority.
Nonetheless, there is a concern Germany is slipping into the third wave of COVID-19 infections because of more contagious variants of this new coronavirus.
Virologists have repeatedly said it remains unclear to what degree the virus is spreading from children physically going to school into communities and homes.
Over two million people have gotten infected by the virus in Germany and nearly 70,000 have died of COVID-19, although just 10 below 20 years of age, the country's disease control center stated.
Mental Health Impacts on Children
Although children are not that risky when it comes to experiencing severe COVID-19 complications like older adults are, they may be more susceptible to the so-called collateral mental health impacts of this global health crisis.
An analysis which DAK, a German health insurer made on youth psychology, which was acquired by DPA, a German news agency, presented that the number of children and teens hospitalized for psychiatric therapy in Berlin nearly doubled during the first half of 2020, when there were school closures for more than two months during the first lockdown of Germany, compared with the other year's first half.
The statistic highlights the psychological pressure the pandemic has put on young people but is not illustrating the scope of the problem, explained Christoph Correll, child and youth psychiatry director at Berlin's Charite Hospital.
A lot of psychological problems of children are going untraced or unidentified while parents are overwhelmed and teachers, social workers, as well as pediatricians do not have regular communication with children, patients, and clients.
Asbrand, along with other experts in the field wrote an open letter to the German government to push for the needs of youths to get better dealt with in the current pandemic and prioritized when society reopens.
Essentially, an immediate action that government officials could take to help control possible problems would be to allow groups to assemble for youth and school sports events, alongside hygiene and distancing protections.
Asbrand explained, they all do not know yet how this will develop in the long run, although there is a need to focus on youth mental health now.
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