Youth suicide attempts, ideation rose globally during pandemic, new Calgary study finds
CBC
A new study led by the University of Calgary found that emergency department visits for suicide attempts among youth under 18 increased by 22 per cent during the pandemic.
Visits from young people experiencing suicidal ideation also rose globally by eight per cent.
The study analyzed more than 11 million pediatric emergency department visits across 18 countries. Researchers in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Dublin compared pre-pandemic visits to visits during the pandemic, up to July 2021.
Lead author Sheri Madigan, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Calgary, says before the pandemic, an average pediatric emergency department would see about 102 visits per month for suicide attempts by youth. During the pandemic, that increased to an average of 125 visits.
"As a researcher and as a parent, these findings were really distressing," said Madigan.
She says it's important to recognize that despite an overall decrease in pediatric emergency room visits for physical ailments — likely due to fear of catching COVID-19 — hospitals still saw an increase in visits from suicide attempts.
Of those children and teens, the study found that girls were considerably more likely than boys to end up in the emergency department for severe mental distress.
As kids were pulled out of school and their social circles during the pandemic, physical activity decreased and screen times increased, contributing to worsening mental health, Madigan said. But she also points to greater family violence and increased anxiety and depression among parents.
"Without the provision of supports or intervention to help them through this difficult time, it tends to create greater distress amongst kids and sadly, potentially some kids then engage in some suicidal behaviour."
While distressing, the results came as no surprise to Madigan.
In 2019, she co-authored a study about mental health and warned the public that youth were experiencing double the depression and anxiety that they did pre-pandemic.
"One of the things we discussed about 18 months ago … is that if we don't start to implement prevention strategies and bolster intervention strategies and supports, we might see that kids tend to get worse over time than get better," she said.
"Sadly, I think this is an example of that sort of caution — we're seeing that this increase in suicide attempts is happening at a rate that is quite concerning."
In 2021, physicians in Calgary also reported an "unprecedented" number of kids showing up in the emergency room at Alberta Children's Hospital grappling with serious mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm and suicidal ideation.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.