{"id":166,"date":"2023-03-06T03:22:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T03:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maginecreativeservices.com\/shadesmagazine2023\/?p=166"},"modified":"2023-11-26T10:16:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T18:16:36","slug":"how-a-pandemic-played-mind-games-with-some-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maginecreativeservices.com\/shadesmagazine2023\/how-a-pandemic-played-mind-games-with-some-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"mind games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How a pandemic played mind games with some youth<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Mariah Stewart, shades Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Elizabeth Robbins of Kaysville, Utah, endured racist comments from peers and struggled to find a sense of belonging in her learning community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said a slow response from school faculty and staff caused her to have social troubles, to spiral emotionally and to experience a mental health crisis during the summer of 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI became really depressed and I don\u2019t know if it was the COVID-19 [pandemic] that affected it the most or the fact that I was transitioning to a new school and was going through so many emotional and mental changes,\u201d the Black LGBTQ Senior at Mountain High School said. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Elizabeth Robbins<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Elizabeth \u2013 who was adopted by a White Mormon family, but does not identify as Mormon \u2013 said it was during the pandemic she began disagreeing with her family\u2019s beliefs for the first time; then her grades plunged, her work ethic declined and she eventually had to get professional treatment for the internal strife she was experiencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t relate to my family anymore,\u201d the 17-year-old student said. \u201cI felt very isolated. I felt like an outcast.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth is just one of thousands of minority students nationwide that are disproportionately impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An October 2022 survey<\/a> from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found nearly 75% of 4,390 high school students polled experienced at least one adverse childhood experience during 2021. The negative experiences included physical and emotional abuse, sexual violence, food insecurity, cyber bullying, dating violence and\/or the loss of a parent\u2019s job during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several factors have led Students of Color to be more vulnerable to pandemic fallout including a lack of mental health professionals in schools; suffering from anxiety and depression; experiencing  the digital divide; and more, according to experts. shades Magazine<\/em> recently interviewed mental health experts, education leaders and teenagers to better understand how students and their families across the country are grappling with the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2021, just months after Elizabeth sought treatment for her mental health, a cohort of medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children\u2019s Hospital Association declared a national state of emergency in children and adolescent mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis worsening crisis in child and adolescent mental health is inextricably tied to the stress brought on by COVID-19 and the ongoing struggle for racial justice and represents an acceleration of trends observed prior to 2020,\u201d the cohort published in a 2021 press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to exacerbated long-standing socioeconomic issues, experts say the pandemic also sparked new problems for Black and Brown adolescents such as adjustment disorders or the emotional\/behavioral reaction to a stressful event or change, as defined by the Mayo Clinic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe missed two years of life and I don\u2019t think people are really stopping to think about that,\u201d Nia Jones, a licensed medical social worker, said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that young people are experiencing a lot of social anxiety as a result of this. People are expecting to see an 18 year old in front of them and really what they\u2019re experiencing is a 15- or 16-year-old child. Those two years make a very big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones serves as the youth and young adult director at the Black Mental Health Alliance \u2013 BMHA \u2013 a 40-year-old national organization dedicated to developing and sponsoring education programs and services to support mental health and wellbeing in the Black community. In Jones\u2019 role, she works to curate events and services to address mental health for Black youth. One of BMHA\u2019s signature events Jones helps lead is an annual, virtual, in-person\/hybrid youth summit that focuses on how to engage young people in healing from things like long-standing trauma or everyday situations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo often we want young people to just start talking, to share and process,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t give them the tools to be able to do that. And so that is what our youth summit really focuses on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones said the pandemic has brought a heightened awareness to mental wellbeing, but the lack of service providers in schools creates a disparity for those who can get help.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Nia Jones | Black Mental Health Alliance<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe have this wave of Black high schoolers, Black middle schoolers, Black college students who want help, but can\u2019t get to somebody because the school social worker is up to their nose in IEP (Individualized Education Program)<\/em> meetings that they can\u2019t just stop and have a conversation a lot of times with the students at their school,\u201d Jones explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers game<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2022, dozens of K-12 students in Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey, organized a protest demanding access to more mental health resources and professionals within their public schools, national nonprofit news outlet Chalkbeat<\/a> reported. The students pointed to the high ratio of law enforcement officers present in schools compared to the number of counselors as being the major issue. Other stats that have contributed to their frustration  include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n