As household well-being declines, so does kids’s habits – . Well being Weblog

The COVID-19 pandemic is not only bad for our physical health, but also for our mental health. It killed thousands of people and disrupted our lives in terrible ways. It is therefore not surprising that a recent survey found that parents in the US are having a hard time.

Researchers conducted a national survey of more than 1,000 parents with children under the age of 18 in June 2020, asking questions about mental health, insurance coverage, food security, child care and health care availability. They found that compared to before March 2020

• 27% said their mental health was getting worse for themselves
• 17% said their children's behavioral health was deteriorating
• Moderate to severe food insecurity increased by a third from 6% to 8%
• Employee-sponsored health care decreased only slightly, from 63% to 60%
• 24% said they had lost childcare; For families with children up to 5 years of age, however, it was closer to 50%. Among those who have lost childcare, the majority (74%) said that one parent was watching the child instead. This of course has an impact on the parents' ability to work.
• 40% reported cancellations or delays in their child's health care, most often in childcare but also in special and behavioral health care.

Links to Mental and Behavioral Health

One in ten families reported deteriorating mental health for themselves and deteriorating behavioral health for their children. Among those who said both happened, 48% said they had lost regular childcare, 16% reported a change in health insurance status, and 11% had a deterioration in food security. Obviously, these families have been hard hit by the economic impact of the pandemic.

Interestingly, the rates of mental health problems among parents of different races and incomes were similar. However, two groups of parents had worse decline in their mental health: female and unmarried parents; and families with younger children.

This survey was conducted before parents had to deal with the effects of a new school year, which will bring new stress, especially as it appears that many, if not most, school systems will offer at least some of their teaching remotely. Parents will again have to juggle not only to care for their child but also to be sure they are doing their distance schooling – and understanding. For many families, this is essentially impossible.

It's also important to remember that families with children are more likely to be poor compared to families without children – and that job loss and a predicted epidemic of displacements make poor families even more difficult with basic needs such as food become housing.

The effects are amazing. We need to be concerned not only with short-term homelessness and hunger, but also with the long-term effects on children's education, psychology and health. This pandemic could literally change the course of millions of lives for the worse.

Respond to growing needs

So what can we do As a country, of course, we need to provide real financial resources to support families with children, especially single parents and families with young children. This is the greatest and most immediate need and requires action not only from the government but from all possible sources of funding.

We also need to devote resources to mental health support to ensure that everyone who needs it can get it. This won't be cheap either, but the cost will be higher in many ways if we don't.

We have to find ways to take care of each other. At that moment, when we need to be physically far away to prevent the virus from spreading, we also need to be connected. We need to find safe ways to check in with members of our community. These can be regular phone calls or socially remote check-ins with families at risk, contributing to pantries and clothing rides, volunteering for online tutoring, donating to organizations that help families, and anything else that can make a difference.

Part of looking for each other is doing everything possible to stop the virus from spreading. Coupled with a lot of hand washing, this means that anyone over 2 years old should wear a mask if they can't physically distance themselves – and that we really need to take physical distancing seriously. If we let go of our guard – or mask – we will prolong the pandemic with all that means.

We need each other more than ever.

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