Project: Kids, let’s be superheroes — mental wellness in the pandemic

“This pandemic is changing kids’ lives,” says Dr. Marjorie Robb, CHEO Acting Chief of Psychiatry and Division Chief for Community Based Psychiatry. “Young people have had to cope with an enormous amount of change and loss through the pandemic, and that has been hard in many ways.”

The good news is that there are lots of things families can do themselves to minimize the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the mental health and development of children — mental-health professionals are only a minor piece of the puzzle.

Since the start of the pandemic, CHEO, along with the rest of the country, has seen a surge in child and youth mental health issues. More visits to the CHEO Emergency Department are for children and youth thinking of suicide and self-harm. Demand for child and youth mental health care has greatly increased with care for eating-disorder patients up over 200%. Still, most children do not need a mental health professional; what kids need is safety, security and predictability, along with having life be as “normal” as possible. This means healthy habits, friends, activities and secure family relationships.

“All of a sudden, kids were missing out on so many of the usual milestones that are critical to their development. It seems everybody moved indoors and online,” Marjorie says. “We know physical exercise is protective against depression and anxiety for everyone, not just children, but for kids it’s extra important because their brains are still developing. Healthy children grow into healthy adults so, for kids, it’s not just their day-to-day mental health that’s at stake, it’s their whole lives ahead.”

Kids and youth have missed out on school — not just classes but important moments like graduations, talent shows, field trips, end-of-year celebrations, assemblies, sports, drama, and clubs. They have missed out on loving, nurturing time with extended families — grandparents matter! They have missed out on free-play time with friends. Worldwide, UNICEF reports that kids are at greater risk of household violence, as well as financial and food security, as the pandemic has taken its toll on families.

“Children and youth have become isolated from one another and their important supports,” Marjorie says. “Isolated kids can become anxious, they spend more time on social media and their developing brains are more likely to start to question their self-worth. This can become a downward spiral that ends with a visit to the CHEO Emergency Department for urgent care.”

For younger children, too much time on screens and less time playing outdoors and interacting face-to-face interferes with brain development and learning social and life skills.

The key to keeping kids healthy is prevention. Developing new family routines and habits helps kids feel positive and secure, and reduces anxiety. This is the subject of Project: Kids, Let’s Be Superheroes by Gayle Grass, a book about addressing the worries and challenges kids are facing in this pandemic. As Marjorie notes in the epilogue, the five keys to mental health are positive emotions, engagement with whatever we are doing, positive relationships, a sense of meaning and accomplishments.

There are lots of supports available to help families focus on the mental well-being of their children and youth. For help now, visit 1Call1Click.ca. For support, visit CHEO mental health resources and support. And, visit Iris the Dragon where you can download a free copy of Project: Kids, let’s be superheroes.

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Sponsored by the Iris the Dragon, Project: Kids, let’s be superheroes is one of seven kids’ books available as a free PDF at IrisTheDragon.org. These are stories, for kids, about Iris the Dragon and her friends Ottie Otter and Beatrix Bunny. They stress the need for early identification and intervention of issues. They deal with various mental health topics in a way that kids can enjoy and understand. And, they include tips for the grown-ups who love those kids. Current titles:

• Kids, let’s talk — for military families
• I can fix it — about Asperger’s Syndrome
• Catch a falling star — red flags in a child’s emotional and social development
• Lucky horseshoes — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Hole in one — anxiety disorder, particularly around performance in school
• He shoots, he scores —the stigma of mental health issues in children
• Project: Kids, let’s be superheroes — addressing the mental health challenges kids will face in a pandemic

On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, Iris the Dragon, with funding from Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund, presented 250 printed copies of Project: Kids, let’s be superheroes to Dr. Marjorie Robb for distribution to kids and families at CHEO. Although the Iris the Dragon titles are available for free download, Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund funded 4000 printed copies of “Project: Kids, let’s be superheroes” to ensure its distribution in schools and health-care organizations throughout Eastern Ontario.