Dr Niamh Lynch: Children sacrificed too much during covid

Referrals to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for anxiety and self-harm remain significantly higher than they were pre-pandemic, writes Dr Niamh Lynch

It's hard now to remember the ins and outs of various lockdowns and how they were eased, but my children, and other children I speak to remember that Lockdown 1, as they call it, seemed like a novelty amidst the uncertainty and worry, made easier by glorious weather, but Lockdown 2, in the depths of a particularly grey and dark winter, was almost unbearable. File picture

When was the last time you heard the word Nphet? How does that word make you feel now?

I have mixed feelings when I remember that word, when I remember the Nphet team, their earnest, worried faces, their urgent messaging as covid numbers soared skywards. I admired their singular focus on a single problem: covid-19. 

But now that the pandemic is over, I look back and wonder at the harm that singular focus may have caused. I must be careful not to cloak myself in the wisdom of hindsight, but even at the time, in the midst of the covid chaos, I began to worry about our children.

I don’t mind saying I am a bit of a prepper, and part of my preparation for the pandemic I saw coming in January 2020 was to buy a wind-up radio. Unlike the endless tins of beans and fruit, my wind-up radio held a fascination for my children, who were young at the time. It became their job every morning to wind it up before school.

 

This article is part of a series looking back at the covid-19 pandemic, five years on from when restrictions were first introduced in Ireland.

 

And so it was on this little wind-up radio, as I cleaned out the chicken coop on a sunny March 12, 2020, that Leo Varadkar crackled at me across the airways all the way from Washington: "I need to speak to you about coronavirus and covid-19" Time stood still as I listened to the entire speech. 

Its delivery was masterful and measured. But its impact was a hammer blow. When he was finished, the hens continued to fuss around my feet, the birds still sang in the trees, and the sun shone bright. But my heart felt stunned. 

The very first measures that were to be put in place were the closures of schools, colleges and childcare facilities. In a jarring juxtaposition, restaurants, cafes and other businesses could remain open for the foreseeable (that turned out to be only a few days).

Dr Varadkar wrapped up by saying that our economy would suffer but would bounce back. He was right. He said: "Lost time in school or college will be recovered." He was wrong. 

Irish children were subjected to longer school closures than many comparable countries, and it hurt them. File picture: Larry Cummins

Mainly he was wrong because school closures were initially planned to last 17 days and children did not return to school until September. We weren’t to know this either when children ran to meet us at the school gates on March 12, 2020, full of excitement at the thought of an extra-long Easter break whilst their parents frantically tried to figure out how they were going to juggle childcare and work.

It's hard now to remember the ins and outs of various lockdowns and how they were eased, but my children, and other children I speak to remember that Lockdown 1, as they call it, seemed like a novelty amidst the uncertainty and worry, made easier by glorious weather, but Lockdown 2, in the depths of a particularly grey and dark winter, was almost unbearable. 

This came after our ‘meaningful Christmas’, a longed-for release valve for adults, for which our children paid a high price as the covid numbers shot upwards in the weeks to follow. There were long, dark days in front of a computer screen (for children lucky enough to have access to a computer), social isolation, and worry about parents and grandparents. 

Child anxiety

It wasn’t long until the anxiety started to crack through. And anxiety is a funny thing. Once it intrudes upon a child’s life, it is very hard to push it back out.

Irish children were subjected to longer school closures than many comparable countries, and it hurt them. This isn’t a sweeping statement on my part – it is borne out in data. 

As paediatricians, we started to notice it early on, as children presented with mysterious tummy pains and headaches, funny movements and tics, dramatic weight loss. Medical investigations all revealed the same finding – nothing. This was a mass physical manifestation of anxiety.

The numbers stand testament to this. In the first year of the pandemic, my Dublin colleagues documented a 45.6% rise in paediatric mental health presentations to emergency departments during September to December 2020 compared with the year before. 

A qualitative study of child and adolescent mental health during the pandemic was published in 2021 and highlighted child and parental concerns about social isolation, stress and anxiety about home schooling, and behaviour changes, depression and anxiety amongst children. 

To this day, GPs, paediatricians and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (Camhs) are working to help the children whose lives were upended by Ireland’s pandemic response. A recent study published in September 2024 shows that referrals to Camhs remain significantly higher than they were pre-pandemic, with notable increases in referrals for anxiety, depression, self-harm, and eating disorders. 

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In 2022, the Government’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection at the time, Professor Conor O'Mahony, was critical of what he called "lengthy and indiscriminate school closures" and the Children’s Ombudsman, Niall Muldoon, concluded that "consideration of children’s rights does not appear to have informed decision-making regarding school closures to the extent that it might have done". 

As a country we asked so much, probably too much, of children during the covid-19 pandemic. Closing the schools was like dropping a heavy stone into an unknown lake. And the ripples still spread today. 

We owe our children much. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they made. We owe them well-staffed and well-funded mental health services. And we owe them a guarantee that their rights and needs will be front and centre when formulating future emergency responses.

• Dr Niamh Lynch is a Consultant Paediatrician