Harsh school lockdowns failing teens

How many teens need to come forward with self-harm behaviour before the Andrews government acknowledge our youth are in crisis?

Leading psychiatrists and psychologists are calling on the Andrews government to acknowledge the shadow mental health pandemic.

Leading psychiatrists and psychologists are calling on the Andrews government to acknowledge the shadow mental health pandemic.

Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has called for greater transparency on a crisis that has seen a dramatic increase in the number of youngsters presenting with suicidal thoughts and self-harm issues.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in 30 years, and these effects will not just be short term and you will not be able to vaccinate them away, we will live with this shadow pandemic for years,” Dr Carr-Gregg told me.

Psychiatrist Professor Patrick McGorry believes Australia must learn to live with Covid once we reach vaccination targets. The former Australian of the Year said mental health services were overwhelmed. “The system is drowning … this is the shadow pandemic. And every lockdown makes it even worse,” he said.

What kids need most is to be in school, not just for their academic progress but for the sake of their mental health and social development.

If the state government is unwilling to re-open schools during this lockdown then the least it can do is to start the Term 3 holidays this weekend. Give high school students a break from the pressures and inadequacies of online learning and give exhausted parents of primary school children a much needed respite from playing teacher.

If Lockdown 6 does end in two weeks, then at least students will have an extended period of face-to-face learning during the last term of what has been another terrible year.

Dr Carr-Gregg wants teachers to be vaccinated and kids to be back in the classroom to alleviate the damage. And, he has called for greater transparency of mental health data. “I’d like to hear from the chief psychiatrist of Victoria, we haven’t heard a thing from him, we don’t know if he’s been consulted,” he said.

“What is his view? Why isn’t he giving out advice to the people of Victoria?”

How many more teenagers need to present to Victorians hospitals with self-harm injuries and suicidal thoughts for the Dan Andrews government to acknowledge the “shadow pandemic” gripping the state?

Is the current average of 148 kids a week not enough?

Health bureaucrats and feckless politicians should be as concerned about the numbers hospitalised for mental health issues as they are about Covid-19 statistics.

IN SHORT

The reopening of the I Cook Foods parliamentary inquiry will have some high-powered individuals feeling nervous. Key senior state government and City of Greater Dandenong figures will be called. Slug-gate may result in more than one career being tarnished.

LOCKDOWN MILESTONE MAKES US MISERABLE MELBOURNE

What a miserable milestone Melbourne notched up on Thursday; 200 days of living under crushing lockdowns — only it’s not really living, just existing.

What began as 14 days to flatten the curve has turned into months of isolation and mental, physical and psychological hardship.

Melbourne has gone from being the world’s most liveable city to the world’s most locked down.

Read the opinion article in full here.