Around the world, the 1 year anniversary of Covid-19 interrupting our lives was observed in different ways. For many, the concern is for the children and young people who are experiencing Covid-19 as an adverse childhood experience.
The clinical observations of a Canadian psychotherapist may well be true for the Caribbean region as it relates to how children are coping one year on.
Alyssa Strachan, based at the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada has been helping youth in the region get through the stress and anxiety of this past year. She said many have reported similar feelings: of loneliness, social isolation, decrease in motivation, and difficulty in online learning.
"I'm seeing a lot of anxiety in kids in the region. There's the anxiety around our loved ones, what's gonna happen to the people in our homes, the people we love," Strachan told The Morning Edition - KW.
"There's the social isolation piece â not being able to be in close contact with friends now that we're back in lockdown, not having that accessibility to our friends, not being able to see them at school, even.
"There's also grief that goes along with that. There's the loss of being around social situations, there's the loss of seeing close family and there's also a loss of extra curricular, so there's a lot of grief and anxiety going on right now," Strachan added.
According to Strachan, some kids are worried about family members in a way they didn't need to be before. "I've had kids say, 'I don't want my family to leave the house' because they're worried about them contracting COVID," Strachan said.
"They're worried about going back to school because they're worried about bringing it back into the home."
'A lot of long term effects from this'
The psychotherapist is warning that the effects of the pandemic on kids are not likely to go away any time soon.
"I think we're also going to see a lot of kids coming out of this with decreased motivation for school," Strachan said.
"I think we're also going to see over the long term, the grief of all that we've lost this year â we've lost family members, we've lost being able to be with our friends, and for kids they've really lost out on being able to be involved in the extra curricular that are so important for so many kids."
For the full article on the CBC website please click here.
In speaking with a former educator here in Trinidad and Tobago recently, we discussed how these challenges are impacting adults in much the same way. The intergenerational nature of trauma is relevant here as, untreated, the trauma from living through the global, national, community and family responses to Covid-19 may remain in our DNA and pass on to our descendants for generations to come.
This is why we urge you to practice self-care, seek support for emotional, familial and other challenges and engage in activities which instil hope and build resilience. We will get through this!
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