A new study has found that Covid-19 affects BAME youth mental health more than their white peers due to the higher risk of BAME people dying and inability to attend school which causes increased anxiety within this demographic. Tara Pilkington reports.
The coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of children from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds much worse than their white peers, research has found.
Data from one of the biggest providers of NHS-funded online mental health support has found that factors such as the higher risk of BAME people dying from Covid-19, and an inability to attend school over the last three months, have caused a significant rise in anxiety and self-harm among under-18s from BAME backgrounds.
The results from this study have also found that the mental wellbeing of children and young people from BAME communities has been disproportionately affected during lockdown compared with their white counterparts.
Figures have shown that the number of BAME under-18s seeking help for anxiety or stress from the Kooth digital support service increased by 11.4% during March, April and May, compared to 3% among white children within the same age group.. This is compared with data from the same period last year.
- Kooth is a form of online mental health support for children and young people provided by 85% of England and Wales’s local NHS clinical commissioning groups.
- The new findings from their latest study is based on requests for help from 51,321 under-18s in England, of whom 7,482 were from a BAME background.
