Health care and mental healthcare professionals across the country continue to work overtime as hospitalizations surge due to COVID-19.
According to Dr. Gretchen Gudmundsen, a psychiatrist from St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital, the demand among children is so high, getting an appointment to see a psychiatrist will take at least three months.
“We continue to not be able to keep up with the demand, we were already in a bad spot before the pandemic started and now I would say we are even less able to meet the need,” Dr. Gudmundsen said.
If a child needs to be seen for medication, it could take six months for an appointment to become available, for a psychological evaluation it can take anywhere from 6-8 months. Dr. Gudmundsen said the COVID pandemic is a huge factor as to why the demand for children needing to see a mental health professional is so high.
“A year ago there were a lot of unknowns, we were just trying to make the best decision we could and we were more or less all working under the same rules and regulations and now the shift of vaccine availability, the increased variability of what schools are doing, and what parents are requiring, make that more difficult," she said.
She added, kids are accustomed to following rules that grown-ups give them. When it comes to masking, she said she really hasn’t seen much push back from children, but that it's more so the split opinions and opportunity for judgment that increases anxiety levels.
“The division and the divisiveness is just really, really hard on our kids,” said Angela Saitta, a mother of three.
Saitta said there are elderly family members in her home who chose not to get vaccinated. Because of that, her children worry they may bring the virus home. One of her kids is also immunocompromised with Type 1 diabetes.
"He's anxious about the people that don't take it seriously, because he is so passionate that he does have conversations in school about it, and it's really hard for him to not get angry,” Saitta said.
She said her sixth-grade son is also showing signs of depressions since being back in school.
Dr. Gudmundsen suggested that parents reach out to their pediatrician or school counselor if parents see concerning behaviors in children. She added it's important for parents to be able to let children talk about their feelings and emotions, reassuring them that it's normal to be impacted by the changes brought on from the pandemic.
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