There are many stories about the adverse effects of school closures on our children during the COVID-19 lockdown. There is grave concern about the long-term effects on learning, declining grades and millions of children who have just disappeared from their digital classrooms and will not return when schools reopen.
In addition, we have seen several reports of increasing mental health problems, mainly based on feedback from parents. There are also local reports of rising teen suicide rates. In Clark County, Nevada, schools opened after 18 students in the district committed suicide. According to news reports, 30 children have committed suicide in Cook County, Illinois since school closures began. A lawsuit against a San Francisco school district finds a significant increase in children in need of mental health care:
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital has seen a 66 percent increase in the number of suicidal children in the emergency room and a 75 percent increase in the number of youth who needed hospitalization for mental health care, the lawsuit said, citing pediatricians, child psychiatrists and emergency physicians.
Last month, UCSF Children’s Emergency Department in Mission Bay reported a record number of suicidal children seen and treated, according to the legal filing that did not include a detailed number of cases and hospital visits. It also cited doctors who cited increases in childhood anxiety, depression and eating disorders, in line with national data.
Now there is a report looking at medical claims for mental health treatment across the country. An analysis by FAIR Health, the largest repository of private medical claims data in the United States, examined the year-over-year use of mental health diagnosis services. The results must concern us at the national level. It is not clear how developing maladaptive coping mechanisms or suffering from mental illness as a child will affect a person later in life. From the study for children ages 13-18:
- In March and April 2020, the percentage of all medical claim rules approximately doubled from the same months in the previous year.
- The pattern of increased mental health claim lines continued through November 2020, albeit to a lesser extent.
- Willful self-harm claim rules as a percentage of all medical claim rules increased by 90.71 percent in March 2020 from March 2019.
- The increase was even greater when comparing April 2020 to April 2019 at 99.83 percent.
- Overdose claim rules increased 94.91 percent as a percentage of all medical claim rules in March 2020 and 119.31 percent in April 2020 in the same months in 2019.
- In April 2020, Generalized Anxiety Disorder claim rules increased by 93.6 percent as a percentage of all medical claim rules in April 2019
- Claim rules for major depressive disorder increased by 83.9 percent and claim rules for adjustment disorders by 89.7 percent.
- The top three mental illnesses from January to November 2020, in order from most to least common, were major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and adjustment disorders.
- Eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder were also more common between March and November 2020.
- Emergency room visits for mental illness rose 8.3% year-over-year from March to November 2020. They peaked in September with an increase of 22.8%.
For children ages 6-12, obsessive-compulsive disorder and tic disorders all showed an increase from spring to November 2020. Some months these increases are as high as 30%, with tic disorders increasing over time to November. These vocal, motor, and Tourette-like symptoms generally need to last for a period of months to a year before being diagnosed. Claims for attention deficit and related disorders all went down, indicating that teachers and school professionals often identified symptoms when they disrupted a child’s behavior or learning.
Students aged 19-22 in the age group reflected many of the trends in the age group 13-18 years. However, there were also marked increases in emergency room visits for schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and panic disorders, indicating a serious worsening of the diagnosed diseases or new diagnoses. In teens and young adults, the percentage of girls with mental health problems increased from a normal of about two-thirds of all diagnoses to a maximum of 73%. This gender difference was especially evident in the 13-18 age group for claims related to deliberate self-harm. In August 2020, girls accounted for 84% of the cases. These claims can result in a successful suicide, along with overdoses.
Some of these claims represent children who will never see their parents again. We will soon know what that number is. Anecdotal data indicates that, according to the CDC, it will be far more than the 208 children under the age of 18 who have died from COVID-19. Many of the COVID-19 losses tragically occurred in children who were very ill. Most of the suicides reported in the news occur in a healthy, functioning child and often gifted in a sport or academics. The loss of a child is an unspeakable tragedy. Losing a child to suicide leaves certain scars on parents and siblings.
As some states reopened and schools began personal instruction, the researchers note that the claims began to slowly decline until November 2020, the last month analyzed. They even go so far as to credit the reopening for the decline. These trends across all age groups should clearly show that schools should now open. Instead, our new Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, and his staff are concerned about equality programs and developing plans for ‘safe’ reopening of schools.
Cardona is calling for a national summit, and his priority seems to be to appease teachers’ unions with performative nonsense. He also insists that more money is needed, citing the $ 130 billion for schools in Biden’s stimulus proposal. In February, on a responsible budget, the Commission reported that state and local governments and teachers had not spent nearly $ 145 billion from the previous package. At least 55% of them are open to personal and hybrid learning.
Stop normalizing the ridiculous demands of teacher unions and the hideous AFT president Randi Weingarten. They would be back in class today if they cared about our children’s health, safety and learning. Real teachers all over the country and the world have been for months. Job one should reduce the power and influence of these unions through all necessary legal means.