(Facebook/ Children First Canada)

By Nigel Maxwell

Healthy homes

New report links increases in child abuse and youth suicides to COVID-19

Sep 1, 2020 | 9:00 AM

As children go back to school this fall, reports of suspected child abuse may increase, as well as concerns raised about depression and isolation.

These are among the concerns raised in a new report published by Children First Canada, the University of Calgary’s O’Brien Institute for Public Health, and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Raising Canada 2020 documents how Canadian children have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Children First Programs manager Kelsey Beson explained prior to COVID-19, suicide was the second leading cause of death for youth ages 15-24. During data collection for the report, 57 per cent of participants ages 15 to 17, reported their mental heath was somewhat worse or much worse than it was prior to physical distancing measures.

“So we can definitely see that there is a a clear impact on mental health from COVID for young people,” she said.

The report also looked at the rate of child abuse prior to the pandemic. Between 2017 and 2018, family violence against children increased seven per cent. Beson said their most recent findings suggest one – third of children in Canada do not enjoy a healthy and safe childhood, and one-in-three Canadian children experience abuse before they are 15 years old.

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“And during this pandemic the World Health Organization has actually said violence against children is the hidden crisis. We also work closely with the Kids Help Phone and they are reporting an increase in specific conversations about physical, sexual and emotional abuse,” Beson said.

Beson further added concerns about child abuse will continue to rise, explaining the children have been cooped up the past few months at home, and have not had accessibility to teachers and other support workers.

“So there’s probably even more silence and we anticipate that once children start returning to school, we might seen an increase in suspected child abuse,” she said.

Another category discussed in this report is poverty and hunger The report found that 29 per cent of canadians report the covid situation has had a moderate or major impact on their ability to meet financial obligation or essential needs. Fifteen per cent of Canadians indicated they had experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days.

Moving forward Beson said Children First was proposing a three point plan for the federal government. The first point was to have a national child commissioner who wold be directly responsible for the the wellness of Canadian children. The second call for action is for the government to create a children specific budget, which would tackle the immediate threat of children’s health concerns during the pandemic.

“And then in addition to that, a national policy strategy that would tackle the top top ten threats,” Beson said.

Response from the front line workers

Kim Smith is the Youth Services Coordinator for the Prince Albert YWCA, and explained to paNOW the concerns related to poverty, are not directly linked to COVID, and have been ongoing for years as the result of increases in the cost of living. Smith provided the example of a mother of four children, who in order to work a minimum wage job, must pay for daycare.

“Whether its subsidized or not, theres going to be more added cost so it’s difficult for some of these women to get on their feet and be able to afford rent and with the cost of food going up it’s almost insane to be able to eat healthy and feed children,” Smith said.

Smith agreed her organization has heard concerns related to youth feeling more anxiety as a results of the pandemic; but she added the YWCA has been able to link youth a lot easier with groups such as Catholic Family Services, who have been doing phone in counselling sessions.

“Rather than waiting a few weeks to get in in-person, they can have maybe a weekly session with them,” she said.

Smith also explained that with the extra supports from government agencies, such as cleaning supplies, the YWCA has been better able to help the women, children and youth.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell