Children's mental health affected by Covid-19 crisis, charity warns
A generation of children are seeing their mental health affected by the Covid-19 crisis, a charity warned today.
Childline says it has seen a rise in calls from children struggling with lockdown across the West Midlands.
It comes as an eating disorder charity says it has experienced a 73 per cent increase in calls from young people and another report warns of the impact of isolation on very young children.
With schools only just starting to return, many children have now been away from classmates for almost three months.
Neil Homer, of Great Barr, volunteers as a Childline counsellor in the West Midlands.
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Writing in the Express & Star today, he says he is receiving many calls from young people in crisis.
He says: “Some children I have spoken to recently feel that the world is a scary place and everything might not go back to how it was before.
"Some young people are missing friends and school, and the routine that surrounds that.
"Some feel they are falling behind on school work and are worried about the impact on grades.”
The trend is being mirrored by other child welfare charities. Eating disorder charity Beat says young people are spending more time online where harmful images are. It has had extra calls and a 162 per cent increase in social media contact.
The National Children’s Bureau says it is concerned that under fives are also suffering long term damage from a lack of contact with other children.
