Building the mental health management system for children post COVID-19 pandemic: an urgent focus in China

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the beginning of 2020 was considered a threat to global health security [4]. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 as a global epidemic [9]. Following home quarantine, unemployment, or other social problems, this global epidemic led to panic-stricken societies and turmoil [16]. This stressful event (COVID-19) may show a long-lasting impact on mental health [11, 15]. Notably, the mental health of children and adolescents has been affected substantially during the outbreak of COVID-19. In 2015, 17.6% of the pupils aged 6–16 years had at least one mental disorder [2]. In contrast, during the COVID-19 outbreak, an online survey reported the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 43.7% among Chinese high school students [18], thus suggesting an increase in mental disorders. In China, most parents were unable to identify the mental health problems of their children early due to the lack of public awareness for children’s mental health [3]. Even if they identify the mental health problems, they do not know how to get mental health services for their children, and how to help their children as their parents [10]. Therefore, China needs to pay more attention to establishing a solid mental health care system for its children.