Webinar shows worries about youth mental health in pandemic; last in series, on vaping and substance abuse, is Monday

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

The fourth of five webinars about reducing disease and unhealthy behaviors in Kentucky's children focuses on youth mental health, especially in response to the isolation and stress of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Dr. Sheila Schuster, executive director of Advocacy Action Network, opened the Dec. 14 webinar with words of concern, saying she believes that 2020 has presented more challenges to young people's mental health and well-being than any time in recent memory. 

"The twin pandemics of Covid-19 and racial injustice have created serious disruptions in their lives," said Schuster, who moderated the webinar. "It is more important than ever, that the community of young people, parents, educators, advocates, policymakers and professionals come together to provide supports and resources for our youth."  

The webinar, "Understanding Youth and Building Good Mental Health," was part of a monthly series that is serving as the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky's annual policy forum due to the pandemic.

The foundation is partnering with Kentucky Youth Advocates on this year's Howard L. Bost Memorial Health Policy Forum. The final webinar in the series, "Stopping Vaping and Substance Use"  will be held at 2 p.m. ET Monday, Jan. 11. Click here to register. 

In the Dec,. 14 webinar, Dr. Felicia Smith, a licensed psychologist and co-owner of  of StrongMinds, called the pandemic and the issues of systemic racism "disruptors" in the lives of children. 

She said the stress associated with the pandemic is not only related to the isolation itself, but to the reduction in social life and physical activity, changes in routine, increased use of screens and devices, missed rites of passage, and the breaks in caregiving, education and health care. Added to that, she said, are financial challenges that many families are experiencing during this time. 

Smith said all of these Covid-19 disruptions are obstacles to normal developmental of children, especially adolescents, including their need for social connectedness, developing self-identities and their need for growing independence. 

She also called systemic racism and racial trauma a disruptor, and said that it's easy to think that this does not impact children who are not Black. She disagreed, saying, "I would submit to you that racial trauma and associated racial tensions are impacting all of our youth."

She explained, "What what we know from the research is that when young adults recall racist events that they experienced or witnessed as a child, their stress response is similar to that of first responders after major disasters."

Further, she said it's important to recognize and treat this as a public-health issue. 

Smith said it is important to recognize the fear and stress these disruptors cause our youth and target programming and funding aimed at preserving their well-being. She said it's important to look for ways to help them stay socially connected, to find ways to encourage their self-exploration and to help them become part of the solution, which promotes feelings of empowerment. She added that it's important for adults to model healthy behaviors. 

Dr. Allen Brenzel, medical director at the state Department for Behavioral Health, said Kentucky's youth are also dealing with less access to their adult support systems, which are proven to improve their resiliency, and many of them have grief associated with losing family members to Covid-19. 

They are also reporting more anxiety. A World Health Organization study that found 28% of youth report significant anxiety. Brenzel said emergency-room visits for mental health are up significantly for youth 12 to 17, and in-patient services for youth with substance use disorders are often full. 

And while Kentucky has expanded its telehealth services, he said, many families in the state still don't have reliable access to the internet. 

In addition, he said, it's important to recognize that rates of child abuse and neglect often go up in times of stress, all while there are fewer opportunities to recognize it.

"What concerns me most . . . is that we really don't know the behavioral health impact of this crisis. We've never really experienced this protracted of a disaster. And historically, we don't see the full impact of a disaster until six to 18 months after this," he said. "So what I'm concerned about is down the road. And what I really believe is that we all are going to have to work together to support and enhance crisis services. And we're going to need to recognize that the public health response to Covid is not just vaccination and a medical response, but enhancing and building our public behavioral health and our overall behavioral health provider networks to deal with this." 

College student Beatrice Roussell said all Kentucky youth should be regularly taught "cognitive coping skills" to help them learn how to be psychologically resilient.  She said this would provide youth with coping strategies in times of stress. Roussel is a graduate of Manual High School in Louisville, where she was a member of a suicide prevention group.

Kerry Gallagher, director of K-12 Education at ConnectSafely, an internet-safety nonprofit based in California, said a majority of teens report they have been bullied, and that while more girls than boys report they have been cyber-bullied, it's important to talk to both sexes about it. 

In particular, she said it's important to make sure girls know how to tackle such bullying head-on and are ready for it when it may happen -- and that boys are there, not just as bystanders, but as upstanders in the ways cyber bullying may affect them and the girls that they are friends with. 

She added that kids don't always use the word bullying, but often call it "drama." 

Click here to view all of the webinars in the series, found on the foundation's website.