Mental Health Challenges in a Pandemic on Childhood and Adolescence (Nursing)

00:01 So, recently, we have lived through a pandemic.

00:09 And we are still living through it.

00:11 It's not over in 2021.

00:16 What we have learned over the past year and a half, is that pandemics and other natural disasters can actually impact a child in a way that any other trauma would impact the child.

00:37 Why? What are the different risk factors we're seeing here? Well, with the pandemic, for example, everything shut down.

00:47 In March 2020, everything shut down.

00:51 People couldn't go to work anymore.

00:54 People lost their jobs, grownups lost their jobs.

00:58 And as they lost their jobs, as they lost their jobs, they lost their insurance.

01:05 And suddenly, the household now was worried about how are we going to pay mortgage, how are we going to be able to get help with our health, so you had parental and environmental insecurity.

01:21 When you have parental and environmental insecurity, the risk of mental illness for that child goes up.

01:29 When you have stressors that are affecting the grownups, that affects the child in the house.

01:37 Also, when you have a disruption of the learning environments, and schools shut down, and everyone went online, that also causes a disruption in social emotional learning.

01:50 And so children as young as four or five, we're now sitting in front of a screen, trying to learn how to connect when it's difficult enough to try and understand a grownups emotions, when you're in the same room as them.

02:10 When we think about this, and I am talking about it related to the pandemic.

02:15 But if we think about any other environmental event that happens that can disrupt employment, that can increase stress, hurricanes, floods, droughts.

02:31 These are things, earthquakes, these are all things that impact a child's capacity to develop a really strong, emotional, and healthy psychiatric and psychological basis.

02:48 So when we're thinking about pandemics and other natural environmental traumas, we also have to think there's a higher risk for ACEs with kids.

03:02 We also have to think about the child who has contracted COVID, that child is going to possibly be a long hauler.

03:13 And what do we mean by long hauler? That's a child who may have lung problems for the rest of their life.

03:20 So we have to think about, this impact is not just on the child in the moment, this is an impact on the entire family.

03:29 So you've got the child who is experiencing loss, maybe a parents because of COVID, or for themselves being terribly ill.

03:42 One of the other things that I just wanted to mention here, because I say it's pandemic, or other traumas is the incredible increase in gun violence, and the impact that that has on family and youth from mass shootings.

03:59 And so that child, again, may be recovering from the impact of having been a victim of gun violence, but also may have lost family members.

04:10 So we have to really be thinking about that.

04:13 And we have to think about the fact that these children are going to have ongoing medical needs.

04:21 And that again, increases the stress level for the parents who may or may not have insurance.

04:31 So what is our role? What is the nurses role when you are working with children in youth who have mental health challenges? Assessment.

04:42 Assess, assess, assess.

04:45 Make sure you're assessing with all your senses.

04:50 Make sure that you help educate the family.

04:54 Get the referrals in, give some health counselling to the family.

05:01 Make sure that the family has access to references.

05:05 And also make sure you have access to crisis referrals.

05:10 Because these situations with a child can escalate into a crisis with very little warning.

05:19 You want to make sure that you stay vigilant that you are constantly evaluating the child's change, the change in demeanour, the change in their voice, their tone, their behaviours.

05:34 And also, importantly, whether you're working with children or you're working with adults who have mental health challenges.

05:42 You need to engage in self-care, because it's exhausting.

05:48 You give so much of yourself, you are assessing, you are putting yourself out there.

05:54 So making sure that you have access for self-care for yourself, that you are taking care of your own needs.