There have been many stories about the harmful effects of school closures on our children during the blockade of COVID-19. There is significant concern about the long-term impact on learning, declining grades and the millions of children who have just disappeared from their digital classrooms and are not returning when schools reopen.
In addition, we have seen various reports of increasing mental health problems, mainly based on parental feedback. There have also been local reports of increases in teen suicides. Schools in Clark County, Nevada, opened after 18 students in the district committed suicide. The news says that since the school closed, 30 children have committed suicide in Cook County, Illinois. A lawsuit against a school district in San Francisco finds significant increases in children in need of mental health services:
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital saw a 66 percent increase in the number of suicidal children in the emergency room and a 75 percent increase in young people who needed hospitalization for mental health services, the lawsuit said, citing pediatricians. child psychiatrists and emergency room doctors.
Last month, the UCSF Children’s Emergency Department in Mission Bay reported a record number of suicidal children seen and treated, according to the legal record that did not provide a detailed number of cases and hospital visits. He also cited doctors citing an increase in anxiety, depression and eating disorders among children, according to national data.
There is now a report analyzing medical claims for mental health treatment nationwide. An analysis by FAIR Health, the largest data repository in the United States on private medical claims, looked at the year-to-year use of mental health diagnostic services. The results should be of national concern to us. It is not clear how the development of maladaptive coping mechanisms or suffering from a mental health disorder in childhood will affect someone later in life. From the study for children aged 13-18:
- In March and April 2020, mental health claim lines as a percentage of all medical claim lines doubled in about the same months of the previous year.
- The pattern of growing mental health demand lines continued until November 2020, albeit to a lesser extent.
- Claim lines for intentional self-harm as a percentage of all medical claim lines increased by 90.71% in March 2020 compared to March 2019.
- The increase was even more significant when compared April 2020 with April 2019 to 99.83 percent.
- Overdose damage lines increased by 94.91 percent as a percentage of all medical damage lines in March 2020 and 119.31 percent in April 2020 in the same months of 2019.
- In April 2020, complaint lines for generalized anxiety disorder increased by 93.6% as a percentage of all medical complaint lines in April 2019
- Major depressive disorder claim lines increased by 83.9 percent, and adjustment disorder claim lines by 89.7 percent.
- The first three mental health conditions from January to November 2020 were, in order from the least common, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder.
- Eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder have also become more common between March and November 2020.
- Visits to the emergency room for mental illness increased by 8.3% year-on-year from March to November 2020. They peaked in September, with an increase of 22.8%.
For children aged 6-12, obsessive-compulsive disorder and tic disorders from spring to November 2020 showed increases in 2019. In some months, these increases are up to 30%, with tic disorders increasing over time to November. These vocal, motor and Tourette-like symptoms should generally persist for a period of months to a year before diagnosis. Claims for attention deficit and related disorders have decreased, indicating that school teachers and professionals have often identified symptoms when they have interfered with a child’s behavior or learning.
University students aged 19 to 22 reflected many of the trends in the 13-18 age group. However, there were also marked increases in ER visits for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and panic disorder, indicating either a severe exacerbation of diagnosed diseases or newly started diagnoses. For adolescents and young people, the percentage of girls suffering from mental health problems has risen from a normal level of about two-thirds of all diagnoses to a high level of 73%. This gender difference was especially evident in the 13-18 age group for intentional self-harm claims. In August 2020, girls account for 84% of cases. These statements can lead to successful suicide, along with overdoses.
Some of these statements are children that their parents will never see again. At some point soon, we’ll know what that number is. Anecdotal data indicate that there will be far more than the 208 children under the age of 18 who died of COVID-19, according to the CDC. Many of the losses caused by COVID-19 occurred tragically in children who were very ill. Most suicides reported in the news occur with a healthy, high-functioning, and often gifted child in a sport or academia. The loss of any child is an indescribable tragedy. The loss of a child due to suicide leaves certain scars on parents and siblings.
As some states reopened and schools began personal training, researchers note that claims began to slowly decline by November 2020, the last month analyzed. They go so far as to credit the reopening of the decline. These trends in all age groups should clearly demonstrate that schools need to open now. Instead, our new secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, and his staff are concerned about equity programs and the development of plans to reopen the “safe” school.
Cardona is calling for a national summit, and his priority seems to calm teachers’ unions with high-profile nonsense. He also insists that more money is needed, citing the $ 130 billion for schools in Biden’s stimulus proposal. In February, the Responsible Budget Committee reported that state and local governments and teachers had not spent nearly $ 145 billion on the previous package. At least 55% of them are open to personal and hybrid learning.
Stop normalizing the ridiculous demands of teachers’ unions and AFT executive chairman Randi Weingarten. They would return to class today if they cared about the health, safety and learning of our children. True teachers from all over the nation and the world have been and have been for months. A job should reduce the power and influence of these unions by any necessary legal means.