If you are in distress, you can call or text 988 at any time. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1 or go to your local emergency department.
POLICY BRIEF: HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT THE ISSUE When a person experiences mental health issues in their early years, the adverse effects on health outcomes and resilience may be seen throughout their entire life — even if they come from well-resourced, well-educated families. With pre-existing service gaps and inequities intensified by the pandemic, a stronger focus on early childhood mental health is needed more than ever. Key Facts CHALLENGES A child’s social and emotional development depends on positive, high-quality relationships with their parents. But when parents are under severe and prolonged stress created by the pandemic, their relationships with their children may break down. This can lead to parental alcohol and drug consumption, spousal conflict, parental separation, or abuse and neglect, all of which can affect early childhood mental health. Emotional-behavioural issues in children were on the rise before COVID-19 hit, as were precursors to child mental illness. Yet mental health services have struggled to keep pace due to long wait times, inadequate training of practitioners in early years mental health, and weak accountability mechanisms for public funding. The pandemic has only exacerbated both the rise in behavioural issues and the challenges of the mental health system. Early childhood education (ECE) improves parent-child relationships and resilience, and reduces developmental disparities in children of lower socio-economic status homes. Even before the pandemic, it was difficult for many families to access licensed ECE facilities. With ECE even less available now due to COVID-19, the risks to child development are being disproportionately felt across socioeconomic, gendered, and racialized lines. CONSIDERATIONS The first six years of a child’s life are crucial for brain development. Events such as economic downturns, recessions and natural disasters, including infectious disease outbreaks, can negatively affect this development, with chronic stress able to activate genetic markers implicated in mental illness. They can also disrupt parent-child relationships and interfere with how sensitive parents are to their children’s needs. When parents are coping well with stress, they can model appropriate behaviours to their children. But when the stress and pressure are too much, it can worsen their coping strategies and trigger mental health symptoms, such as depressive episodes. It can also lead to detrimental behaviours, such as punitive parenting and maltreatment, increasing the risk of emotional and mental health problems in children. Key Fact If you’ve got time, you might want to check out the full policy brief. On October 28, 2021, we hosted a panel with a parent with lived and living experience and a developmental pediatrician. During the panel, we shared findings of the pandemic’s effects on the mental health of infants, children, and parents, and explored how the policy brief recommendations can be implemented in the months and years ahead. Watch it now.
COVID-19 and Early Childhood Mental Health: Fostering Systems Change and Resilience
Global health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic can have serious impacts on the mental health of parents, children, and families. Lockdowns and quarantines have led to social isolation, disruptions to child care and schooling, financial worries, loss of employment, housing insecurity, and increased spousal/family conflict, placing an incredible amount of stress on parents. And all that stress is directly affecting the mental health, well-being, and social and emotional development of infants and children.
People living with multiple disadvantages across race, class, education, disability, and immigration status have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, disproportionately affected by unemployment, stress, and the risk of illness and death. When combined with parental stress, the situation becomes significantly worse — and can further affect the mental health and brain development of infants and children.
HIGHLIGHTS OF POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
To improve the mental health and wellness of parents, children and infants during the pandemic and beyond, policymakers should:
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