Poster #101 - Youth Mental Health Data Collection and Surveillance in the Context of COVID-19: Review and Recommendations

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Background: In late 2021, several public health institutions, including the US Surgeon General and major US pediatric associations, issued advisories stressing the importance of addressing and protecting youth mental health and emphasizing the COVID-19 pandemics’ exacerbation of already worsening trends (Kollins, 2022). Compared to 2019, 2020 saw a 31% increase in the proportion of mental health-related emergency department visits, including a drastic increase in ER trips for potential suicides, among adolescents aged 12-17 (Yard et al., 2021).
Description: CDC research indicates that prior to the pandemic onset, comprehensive child mental health surveillance was an existing weakness for the US (Bitsko et al., 2022). To consolidate the widely variable post-COVID mental health statistics across studies, Racine et al. conducted a global meta-analysis of 29 studies which indicated that 20% and 25% of the world’s youth are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, respectively. This is nearly double pre-pandemic prevalence estimates of youth anxiety and depression (Racine, 2021). These studies demonstrate that not only is pediatric mental health an increasing concern in the wake of COVID-19, but so is the lack of comprehensive state, national, and global mental health surveillance systems and robust data sets, which makes ascertaining representative and precise measures of mental functioning incredibly challenging (Racine et al., 2021, Solmi et al., 2021).
Implications: Effective youth mental health surveillance is critical for efforts to build awareness of mental health and disorders, implement protective policy, and determine allocation of resources. Due to the lack of cohesive national and state mental health data sets or comprehensive surveillance systems, determining where existing health disparities lie is difficult. This insufficiency hinders equitable resource allocation to address risk factors and implement preventative measures (Bitsko et al., 2022; Kollins, 2022; Solmi et al., 2022). Additionally, improving data collection is invaluable to understanding the effects of various pandemic lockdown measures. Between country comparisons would allow for the establishment of evidence-based policies and practices for future epidemic or pandemic scenarios, or management of potential future COVID-19 variants.
Recommendations:
Based on a literature review of available research, the following recommendations have been compiled:
• Improve, streamline, and harmonize children and youth’s mental health data collection across state, national and global jurisdictions
• Increase breadth of children’s mental health surveys to include self and parental rating and report on numerous aspects of mental illness along with other household information such as family dynamics, social determinants, and socioeconomic info
• Invest in robust and stable funding for pediatric mental health
• Increase training for health care providers on how to screen for and address youth mental health
These strategies aim to invest in both the understanding and support of youth mental health, which is sure to be a long-term challenge following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authors

• Shakiera T Causey, Other (National Network of Public Health Institutes)
  Presenting Author

• Morgan Bailey, National Network of Public Health Institutes

• Julia Bleser, NNPHI

• Randhika Aturilaya, NNPHI

• Emily Costello, NNPHI

• Tracy Wharton, NNPHI

• Oscar Espinosa, NNPHI