GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on mental health, and particularly that of children.
Dr. Tiffany Born is a children’s mental health specialist with Bellin Health and says the situation has gotten worse.
“We’re seeing a lot more kids and adolescents that did not have mental health issues in the past are starting to have them,” said Born. “And that’s taxing an already over worked system.”
The problems are popping up at school. Newly returned students, according to Christina Gingle, the Associate Director of Pupil Services at the Green Bay Area Public School District, are showing signs of mental distress.
“I think anxiety is definitely on the rise,” she said Thursday. “It’s one of the things we see predominantly in our district.”
There’s a lot that isn’t, however, easy to see. Gingle says the range of ages they serve makes identifying mental health problems a challenge.
“For our little ones who may not be able to communicate verbally, it may manifest in more behavioral kind of things,” Gingle said.
It’s not likely to go away anytime soon. Dr. Born says it’s likely that these children will suffer some level of permanent mental trauma.
“The Great Depression changed people, and changed their habits and the way they thought about life for their entire lives,” said Born. “And I think it will be very similar with the pandemic.”
Suicidality, too, is on the rise. CDC data shows that there was a 22.3 percent spike in ER trips for potential suicides by children aged 12 to 17 in summer 2020 compared to 2019. Those findings were published in the CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” back in June.
“I haven’t seen any data locally on that,” Born explained. “But I do know there is more of that isolation and more of those depression symptoms that are related to suicide risk, so unfortunately, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were an increase.”
Zero percent of the state’s over 7,000 COVID-19 deaths have been among children, according to state data.
Dr. Born’s office is extremely backed up.
“The most difficult thing about my job is not being able to serve all the people who need to be served at the frequency they need to be served,” Born told WTAQ. “My wait list is about a year at this point, to get in and start seeing me.”
“I hate that.”
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