Article Excerpt: A pandemic within a pandemic. That’s what experts are calling it. Subjected to screens in a year of mostly remote learning, children’s mental health has suffered. Physically distanced from many of the supports and connections that define childhood and school in a year of unprecedented stressors, “the kids are not OK,” as Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said in February. It’s a sentiment that’s been echoed repeatedly, by governors all throughout New England, from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to Rhode Island, as well as the Centers for Disease Control, which reported that nationwide the proportion of children’s mental health-related emergency department visits, among all pediatric emergency department visits, rose from mid-March through October 2020, with increases of 24% among children aged five to 11 years and 31% among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, compared with the same period in 2019.
Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/59wp6mmm
Article Source: Union Leader