The long-lasting impact of school closures and lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to affect Queensland youth, with a 40 per cent increase in patients being treated for anxiety and depression at Mater Hospital Brisbane’s Emotional Health Unit.
The unit, based at Mater South Brisbane campus, treats adolescents and young adults for conditions, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and substance use.
Clinicians say the disruption caused to young people’s lives by lockdowns, the loss of support networks and the cancellation of ‘rites of passage’ events have taken a psychological toll on a generation of young people.
Mater Emotional Health Unit Nurse Practitioner Chris Leary said the rise of working from home had also led to more parents identifying the signs of anxiety and depression in their children and seeking help.
While some patients are having to wait up to 18 months to see a psychiatrist, Nurse Practitioners like Mr Leary are able to see patients without a wait or referral.
Moreton Bay region real estate agent and mother-of-four, Chelsea Perry, said counselling and mental health support at Mater had eased the anxiety of her 12-year-old son Jacob, who has ADHD and is on the autism spectrum.
“The lockdowns really affected Jacob, and the rest of our family,” Ms Perry said.
“The loss of routine and not having contact with his school teachers meant he wasn’t able to cope and that really heightened his anxiety. He found home-schooling absolutely mind boggling.”
Mater Foundation Senior Research Fellow Dr Dhanisha Jhaveri’s research into mental health focuses on neurobiological changes that occur following chronic stress – a major risk factor for the development of anxiety and depression.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a form of uncontrollable and prolonged stress for our younger generation,” Dr Jhaveri, who leads the Neural Stem Cell Biology Research Group, said.
“We are investigating how stress impacts the neuroplasticity mechanism involving the birth of new neurons in pre-clinical models of the adolescent brain and how that affects the regulation of emotion and cognitive behaviour associated with psychiatric conditions.”
