{"id":90058,"date":"2022-01-13T16:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T21:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=90058"},"modified":"2022-01-14T08:54:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T13:54:12","slug":"student-mental-health-a-growing-worry-as-ontario-kids-get-ready-to-return-to-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/local\/gta\/student-mental-health-a-growing-worry-as-ontario-kids-get-ready-to-return-to-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Student mental health a growing worry as Ontario kids get ready to return to classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\"Student
Children leave school on Apr. 6, 2021, after Toronto Public Health ordered all public schools to close amidst a surge in cases of COVID-19 in the city. The mental health of many Ontario students has suffered with the shift to online learning. (Evan Mitsui\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Elizabeth Dodge says all three of her school-aged children have struggled since Ontario schools switched to online learning after the holiday break\u00a0for the third time in two years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ajax, Ont., mother said the isolation\u00a0and uncertainty surrounding what’s to come have both contributed to their depression and anger.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

“I have to supervise them because they won’t stay online and it’s exhausting,” Dodge said on CBC Radio’s\u00a0Ontario Today<\/em>. “They’re just angry and sad all the time. And they were really bubbly and happy kids before.”<\/p>\n

Two of her kids can’t be left alone due to the risk of suicide, Dodge said. While\u00a0she’s sought the help of a local crisis centre in the past, she said it’s been difficult to access timely support.<\/p>\n

“We have a psychiatrist, and just to get in to see them when they’re in crisis or something, it’s still a two-month wait,” said Dodge.<\/p>\n

Dodge’s family is one of many across the province on the front lines of\u00a0a society-wide youth mental health crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts warn.\u00a0Provincial restrictions and months spent learning through a screen have contributed to\u00a0a deterioration in the\u00a0mental health of some children and teenagers, in part,\u00a0because of the\u00a0physical\u00a0isolation\u00a0from their peers.\u00a0The number of Ontario\u00a0youth seeking treatment for eating disorders has spiked. There are also concerns\u00a0the impact of the last two years on mental health will\u00a0continue on long after the pandemic is over.<\/p>\n

The Ontario government says it has set aside\u00a0$3.8 billion over 10 years\u00a0for its mental health and addictions strategy, the Roadmap to Wellness, in an effort to reduce wait times, eliminate barriers to access, better coordinate and improve the quality of care.\u00a0As part of its return to school plan, the province says it’s hiring more mental health workers and investing in additional mental health supports.<\/p>\n

But as students prepare to return to school next week, doctors and parents are\u00a0warning of an unprecedented wave right now of requests for help from young patients amid months-long waits to see specialists.<\/p>\n

‘It just breaks your heart’<\/h2>\n

Dr. Sohail Gupta, a family physician in Stayner, Ont., near Collingwood, said 2021 was\u00a0the worst year for children’s mental health in the 29 years\u00a0he’s practised medicine.<\/p>\n

“There’s been an increase in depression. There’s been an increase in anxiety. There’s been an increase in children who have had suicidal thoughts and suicidal plans,” Gupta said on\u00a0Ontario Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“It just breaks your heart to see that happen to children\u00a0 … They should be full of hope and and promise for what’s coming next.”<\/p>\n

Gupta said in his part of the province\u00a0\u2014\u00a0where wait times are short compared to other parts of Ontario \u2014 it takes approximately three months to see a child psychologist and six months for a pediatrician.<\/p>\n

The wait times are forcing Gupta to make decisions that he normally wouldn’t make on his own, such as prescribing antidepressants to children without first consulting a specialist or recommending counselling.<\/p>\n

“I would much prefer that they get assessed and have counselling and have all those other supports with them, along with medication, if absolutely necessary,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But I’ve had to make that decision in more cases than I can count this past year.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Rachel Mitchell, a child and youth psychiatrist\u00a0at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said because children and their families are waiting longer for medical care, young people are ending up in the emergency department with much more complex problems that would normally have been caught earlier.<\/p>\n

“They’re going from very small things like more temper tantrums because of lack of structure in the school day … [to] increasing presentations for suicidal ideation and more need for hospitalized and acute care,” said Mitchell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CBC<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Dodge says all three of her school-aged children have struggled since Ontario schools switched to online learning after the holiday break\u00a0for the third time in two years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":90059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3538],"tags":[3563,21917,21916],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Student-mental-health-a-growing-worry-as-Ontario-kids-get-ready-to-return-to-classrooms-Milenio-Stadium-Ontario.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90060,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90058\/revisions\/90060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}