CHENNAI: The sudden demise of her doting grandfather due to Covid-19 infection last December still haunts S Ananya, an eight-year-old girl. Traumatised ever since, the happy-go-lucky girl has now gone completely silent. The toll it took on her mental health is so devastating that she is now afraid of going even to her terrace. Whenever her parents are about to step out, she begins weeping inconsolably and pleads them to stay home.
Her mother Sangeetha is concerned about the girl’s behavioural change. “It has become difficult for us to deal with her. Even if I have to go out to buy vegetables, she starts crying and pleads me not to step out. She says I would also die like her grandfather if I stepped out. It is painful to see my kid so terrified,” she says. Ananya’s parents have sought help from a psychologist who visits her for counselling.
Unfortunately, Ananya is not alone. Many children quietly suffer from mental health issues which arise out of loss of their loved ones to Covid or the fear induced by the disease or getting infected. If not attended appropriately and in time, these will have a lasting impact on the mental wellbeing of the children. “Everyone speaks about the mental health problems of adults.
But there is hardly any awareness on the need to address those of children. In this Covid second wave, many young people have died leaving their children behind; many children get infected and hospitalised. All these traumatic experiences are taking a severe toll on the mental health of our children,” Andrew Sesuraj, convenor of Tamil Nadu Child Rights Watch (TNCRW), told TNIE.
A lot of children are struggling to deal with fear, grief and helplessness during the pandemic period, and if the issues are not addressed in time, they can trigger suicidal thoughts in children, warns Dr S Bharathi, a psychologist.
Sesuraj said he keeps making requests to district child protection officers in all the districts to identify children who have lost their dear ones to Covid or have tested positive for the infection themselves and send volunteers to interact with them so as to assess their mental health condition.
Speaking at a webinar organised recently to address the issues of children during the pandemic, Aarti Rajaratnam, a leading child psychologist, said, “The role of kid’s families is crucial under these difficult circumstances. The families should interact more with the children and help them cope with the grief by giving them counselling.”