Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and government lockdown restrictions have had an impact on children and young people worldwide. In this editorial, we explore how and why referrals to UK children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have changed during the pandemic and summarise the emerging data on the potential reasons behind this.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic and government lockdown restrictions have had an impact on children and young people worldwide
Throughout the pandemic, data has been emerging about how COVID-19 and government lockdown measures have had an impact on the mental health of the younger population and in turn, the impact on children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)
A similar picture has emerged from the USA in young people from predominantly Hispanic/Latinx backgrounds where reductions in symptoms of mental health problems were found in the first month after COVID-19 restrictions were implemented.[4]
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in one way or the other. The National Health Service (NHS) has had to adapt faster than any of us could have imagined, with unprecedented changes to services provided and a reduction in face-to-face patient care.[1] Alongside the physical health burden of the pandemic, there is the emerging and arguably, more burdensome, mental health epidemic that we are observing across the country and the world. Children and young people have been disproportionately adversely affected, as they have had to adapt to extraordinary changes to the world around them. Throughout the pandemic, data has been emerging about how COVID-19 and government lockdown measures have had an impact on the mental health of the younger population and in turn, the impact on children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)
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