'Striking' impact of COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health

'Striking' impact of COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health Dr. Deborah Levine has been a pediatric emergency medicine physician in the New York City area for over two decades. In recent years, she has observed an increase in the number of mental health emergencies in adolescents -- which only got worse during the pandemic. Last week's surgeon general's advisory on the youth mental health crisis during the pandemic didn't come as a surprise to hospitalists like Levine, who continues to see the impact as demand still outpaces access 21 months later. YahooNews

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Some hospitals are trying to meet the immediate demand by increasing bed capacity. Though greater access to psychiatric care is needed to help prevent mental health issues from escalating to emergencies in the first place, experts said. At the same time, an existing shortage of behavioral health professionals is compounding the problem, they said. Telemedicine, which proliferated during the pandemic, can also continue to increase access, particularly vulnerable youth in more rural areas, where specialists are in shorter supply.

MORE: 5 things parents can do as surgeon general warns of youth mental health crisis

The surgeon general's advisory came on the heels of a coalition of pediatric groups declaring children's mental health challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic a "national emergency" earlier this fall. The medical associations pointed to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found an uptick in mental health-related emergency department visits for children early in the pandemic when compared to 2019, as well as a 50.6% increase in suspected suicide attempt emergency department visits among girls ages 12 to 17. ...