Child and adolescent self-harm in a pandemic world: Evidence from a decade of data

Abstract

BACKGROUND Little is known about the COVID-19 pandemic impact on child and adolescent mental health, specifically self-harm. This paper serves to form a basis for understanding and planning an appropriate response to the present and longstanding child and adolescent mental health needs with global recommendations for integrated community support and disaster preparedness. METHODS Anonymous, aggregated data from an established regional child and adolescent addictions and mental health service was employed to examine differences in the rates of self-harm as the primary reason for referral among the health-seeking population represented by quarter by year from 2010-2022 to examine whether self-harm rates have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS Females and self-defined sex had higher rates of self-harm referrals compared to males. Both total and first-time self-harm referrals since the COVID outbreak in 2020 did not exceeded the highest quarterly rates before COVID since 2010. DISCUSSION Since the COVID-19 pandemic, self-harm rates in one Canadian region remain stable and lower than the highest rates previously observed over the last decade. Given misplaced alarmist news and reports, a coherent, evidence-based, dynamic national response to mental health, social support, and disaster planning is required to fully understand how best to respond to the pandemic in general with a sustainable social support and disaster preparedness policy strategy and specifically the ongoing and pandemic-related mental health needs of the child and adolescent help-seeking population.