Victoria’s top psychiatrist reveals Covid’s toll on teens

A lockdown-induced “perfect storm” is seeing countless young Victorians suffer eating disorders, severe self harming and other mental health conditions.

Victoria’s chief psychiatrist has warned the Covid pandemic could have a last impact on teens’ mental health.

A “perfect storm” generated by the Covid pandemic is seeing more Victorian children suffer eating disorders, severe self harming and other mental health conditions, the state’s chief psychiatrist says.

Chief Psychiatrist Dr Neil Coventry told the Saturday Herald Sun while he believes most children and adults will recover soon after the worst of the pandemic has passed, he fears vulnerable Victorians will need ongoing support long after the nation reopens.

Dr Coventry said it was clear the impacts of Covid and the lockdown restrictions to manage it — particularly the lack of social connectedness, isolation and school closures — were a burden on people‘s mental health.

However, Dr Coventry said his biggest concern was for children and teenagers.

He revealed hospitals were dealing with a significant increase in the number and severity of young people self harming.

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa have also risen sharply among young people not previously diagnosed with mental health issues, including many with advanced illnesses which are already damaging their long-term physical health.

“Covid is a bit of a perfect storm for all the issues that might be related to the onset of eating disorders,” Dr Coventry said.

“They are presenting late and presenting with quite serious medical complications of malnutrition.

“The school closures to some extent have made this more difficult because the usual school welfare co-ordinators keep an eye on some of the vulnerable children and teenagers face-to-face.

“It is possibly to do with lack of control, predictability, lack of normal structure, a combination of factors not just relating to lockdown experience, but probably the whole Covid experience and the pandemic.”

Earlier this year it was reported that an Andrews government report recorded a high level of youth mental health emergencies in February and March.

The number of teenagers taken to hospital after self-harming spiked by 51 per cent compared to the same period of time the previous year, going from a weekly average of 98 in 2020 to 148 in 2021.

While he was “very confident” the mental health and social impacts of school closures were sufficiently weighed up with other health advice when deciding on lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, Dr Coventry concedes the measures will have ongoing impacts on some children.

“Fortunately most (children) will be resilient and have resilient families, but there are some families that are struggling with other issues and families with unemployment and substance abuse, domestic violence — the perfect storm that gets aggravated in the situation of the pandemic we are living with,” he said.

As well as other leaders from the mental health and education sectors, Dr Coventry said he had been involved in task forces providing the health advice shaping the state’s pandemic response.

Dr Coventry said he and Associate Professor Simon Stafrace were in daily contact with other health leaders and he was confident the expert mental health advice was strongly considered in “these tough decisions”.

“They weigh up all the factors that are relevant in terms of the safety of the population in Victoria, that includes their physical health and their mental health,” Dr Coventry said.

“We certainly have very good structures where our expertise is around mental health, so Simon and I are in contact with the leaders in mental health on a daily basis so we know exactly what is going on, what needs to happen.

“That certainly is considered in the decisions that need to be made.”

Seconded in February 2020 to oversee the Department of Health’s response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system, Associate Prof Stafrace said the pandemic’s timing meant many of its likely longer-term impacts were already being addressed.

“There is no question there will continue to be challenges ahead. Covid is complicated stuff, we have never lived through a pandemic in our lifetime,” Associate Prof Stafrace said.

“But I think we know what the building blocks to better outcomes look like. That is what we are focused on.”