COVID-19 and Children’s Mental Health
According to a new infographic published by the National Institute for Healthcare Management(NIHCM), children’s health professionals are sounding the alarm around the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health and well-being. Fueling concerns is the lack of widespread vaccination among children and the resulting continued closure of schools, missed learning due to quarantining, and school staffing shortages. For children ages 5-11, 27% of parents were planning on vaccinating their children right away, but 73% were not planning on vaccinating right away. CDC estimates vaccinating children 5-11 could prevent around 600,000 new cases of COVID-19.
This has contributed to a mental health crisis for children which includes 140.000 who have lost a parent or a grandparent caregiver to COVID-19. American Indian, Black and Hispanic children were up to 4.5X more likely to lose a parent or grandparent caregiver than White children. Between mid-March to October 2020 the share of mental health-related emergency department visiting for children aged 5-11 rose by 24%.
NIHCM recommends an increase to the number pediatric providers offering COVID vaccination, encouraging vaccination at every opportunity, implementing a reminder/recall system for patients and encouraging partnerships between healthcare and community-based organizations. Home Visitors can play a key role in working with families to ensure that all children are vaccinated. Learn more in this infographic.
For more information and resources about children’s COVID-19 vaccinations, check out the CDC website and the ADHS Vaccine Finder at azhealth.gov/FindVaccine. The SFAZ Home Visitor portal has many resources on COVID-19 under the Resources tab.
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