Number of children seeking mental health care soared last year

Based on figures obtained from the three public paediatric EDs in the greater Dublin region serving a paediatric population of 430,000, mental health presentations by children aged 5 to 15 increased by 52.4% during July and August last year compared to the corresponding period for 2019.

Attendances to paediatric hospital emergency departments (EDs) by children seeking acute mental health care soared in the second half of last year during the Covid-19 pandemic.

That is according to new figures presented by medics who have warned in the new edition of the Irish Medical Journal (IMJ) that “long term stressors linked to the pandemic may be leading to chronic mental health problems”.

They state that this threat warrants “increased funding of mental health services as part of the response to Covid-19”.

Based on figures obtained from the three public paediatric EDs in the greater Dublin region serving a paediatric population of 430,000, mental health presentations by children aged 5 to 15 increased by 52.4% during July and August last year compared to the corresponding period for 2019.

The figures for September to December show a 45.6% year on year increase in mental health presentations by children.

The sharp increases followed mental health attendances by children decreasing by 26.8% during the first four months of the pandemic from March to June.

The medics state that the initial drop may be due to the strict stay at home measures that were in place at the time “leading to a decline in help-seeking behaviour”.

The jump in mental health presentations for the second half of the year comes against the background of overall ED attendances by children being 34.3% down over the 12 months to February 28th 2021 while across the 12 months mental health presentations were up 9pc on the prior year.

The medics state that “following the initial Covid-19 lockdown, ED presentations by children for acute mental health care increased significantly over prior year with this increase sustained throughout 2020”.

Dramatic increase

The medics state that the attendances were above previous years in the weeks before and following school re-opening with a dramatic increase in November 2020 suggestive of the enduring stressor associated with the pandemic leading to ongoing mental health problems.

The medics state that pre-Covid, ED mental health presentations by children and adolescents were rising “and the pandemic has added momentum to this increase".

They state that Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Ireland were recognised to be grossly under-resourced with demand exceeding availability, lack of out of hours services and an over-reliance on ED care.

They state that urgent resourcing of CAMHS and consideration to out of hours access needs to be part of the response to Covid-19.

They state: “Furthermore, the impact of the Covid-19 imposed restrictions on youth needs to be carefully assessed, lest the cure is worse than the cause."