CHILD MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS - Natural therapies BEST OPTION

A rash of new research studies indicate that natural, holistic therapies are especially suitable for reducing stress and improving the emotional resilience and self-esteem of children

- RAMIYA SAKTHIVEL, MINI P. & CYNTHIA JOHN

A silver lining of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it brought the issue of children’s mental health and well-being into national focus. As children struggled to cope with lockdown of schools, socialisation restrictions and family health and financial emergencies, they suffered substantial emotional and mental damage.

In the post-pandemic era, this has manifested by way of socialisation skills deficiency, irritability, anxiety, anger management, fear, depression and digital addiction. Several studies have reported widespread deterioration in children’s mental well-being. For instance, a 2021 Unicef survey found that 14 percent of 15-24-year-olds in India are deeply depressed.

With public education and health having been criminally neglected for decades in post-independence India’s ill-designed centrally planned national development effort, the pandemic accentuated the impact on children’s mental health, and health and wellness experts are warning about a brewing full-blown child mental health crisis.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report released in 2017 reported that 25 percent of adolescents in India in the 13-15 age group suffer depression. According to the report, 11 percent of adolescents countrywide are “distracted”; 8 percent are anxious and suffer sleep disorder; 8 percent experience loneliness most of the time; and 10 percent are unable to forge friendships. According to another survey conducted in 2019 by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, 30 percent of Indian children aged 13-17 years are stressed.