Kids’ suicide, mental health hospitalizations spiked amid COVID lockdowns
California | July 23, 2021
COVID-19 policies had disastrous results on children, especially in California, according to medical researchers at the University of California San Francisco. Suicides in the Golden State last year jumped by 24% for Californians under 18 but fell by 11% for adults, showing how children were uniquely affected by “profound social isolation and loss of essential social supports traditionally provided by in-person school.” Children requiring emergency mental health services jumped last year in Children’s Hospital of Oakland, and children’s hospitalizations for eating disorders more than doubled at UCSF Children’s Hospital. In January, the latter’s emergency department (ED) at Mission Bay hit a record for “highest proportion of suicidal children in ER” at 21%. The researchers previewed their findings and conclusions in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month. They accused the CDC of burying the harms to teen mental health from lockdown while cherry-picking data to cast teen COVID hospitalizations “in the worst possible light… (Excerpts from Just the News)