4 | COVID-19 concerns raised by children and young people 4.3 Mental health concerns resulting from COVID-19 • Children and young people spoke about worry, stress, feeling trapped, frustration, anger, sadness, loss and grief. • Teenagers and young adults tended to discuss COVID-19 in the context of existing mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, obsessive and compulsive behaviours, intrusive thoughts, self-harm and suicidality. • In some cases, a fear of getting COVID-19, or the restrictions associated with COVID-19, was a trigger for an existing mental health condition. Mental health concerns resulting from COVID-19 was the overall top concern raised by children and young people. Twenty-nine percent (733) of children and young people raised this. The dominance of mental health concerns related to COVID-19 is not surprising, given that mental health is the primary concern raised by all children and young people who contact Kids Helpline (not only those that mention COVID-19). In the four months from January to April 2020, 29% of counselling contacts made to Kids Helpline had mental health recorded as a concern. This is a 3% increase compared to the same period in 2019 (26%). Other surveys of children’s concerns during COVID-19 have also highlighted mental health as a significant issue. For example, nationally representative research conducted by Youth Insight about the impacts of COVID-19 found that 40 percent of young people in May 2020 continued to be concerned about their mental health.4 18 Children and young people spoke about their feelings of worry and stress, being trapped, frustrated, anger, sadness, loss and grief. Many raised the impact of COVID-19 on specific mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression, phobias, eating disorders, obsessive and compulsive behaviours, intrusive thoughts, selfharm and suicidality, to name a few. Younger children tended to express worry and anxiety about COVID-19, whereas older cohorts tended to link their concerns to existing mental health diagnoses. Case studies: Mental health concerns resulting from COVID-19 ‘Ethan’, aged 8, rang Kids Helpline to say that he was worried about his family having a difficult time with money and food because of the virus. He is worried that there is no pasta on the shelves, that the Easter egg hunt this year might be cancelled, and that school might be closed down forever. He ended the call saying he was feeling much better. ‘Jamie’, 11, called Kids Helpline with assistance of her mother to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on her anxiety. She has been engaged in counselling before for anxiety. She has been feeling ‘scared’ and ‘trapped’, explaining that she was not able to leave the house and that she was scared about not knowing what was going to happen in the future. ‘Julia’, aged 17, told Kids Helpline that she has experienced anxiety and OCD symptoms for several years. She has a fear of germs and compulsively washes her hands. However, with coronavirus this anxiety has been triggered enormously. She will only eat packet foods, which limits her food options. Sometimes she simply won’t eat anything at all. Although she was aware her thoughts were unreasonable, she is finding them impossible to control at the moment, with her usual distractions being so limited.