Use of Kids Helpline by Children and Young People in Australia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Batchelor, Samantha Jane; Stoyanov, Stoyan; Pirkis, Jane; Kõlves, Kairi

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.03.015

Cited by 57 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Given the social distancing requirements of the pandemic, remote approaches to engage youths are needed. Innovative ways of increasing social support and reducing psychological distress during the pandemic, such as the use of text-based services with older adults [53] and WebChat/email services with adolescents [54], have been shown to be successful in alleviating adverse mental health symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kidcope and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding High School Students’ Coping and Emotional Well-Being

Hsieh

Powell

Tan

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in social isolation, grief, and loss among many adolescents. As the pandemic continues to impact individuals and communities across the globe, it is critical to address the psychological well-being of youths. More studies are needed to understand the effective ways adolescents cope with pandemic-related psychological distress. In this study, 146 students from 1 high school in a U.S. midwestern state completed an adapted version of Kidcope, a widely used coping instrument in disaster research, and measures were taken on generalized distress and COVID-19-related worries. Findings indicated that most students experienced COVID-19-related fears and general emotional distress. Additionally, we found that disengagement coping strategies were associated with lower general distress (p ≤ 0.05) and COVID-19 worries (p ≤ 0.10). Active coping was not associated with general distress and COVID-19 worries. Overall, our findings highlight the need to develop tailored interventions targeting youth coping strategies to reduce and prevent emotional distress and amplify healthy coping skills as the pandemic persists.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kidcope and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding High School Students’ Coping and Emotional Well-Being

Hsieh

Powell

Tan

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…The justification for the 2012 start date is that the coding system was revised at this time and there were differences in the data collected prior. More recent data were also not included in the current analyses, as the unprecedented impact of the global novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic warranted a more granular analysis of weekly and monthly changes in demand (as opposed to annual), which have been reported elsewhere [ 14 ]. Furthermore, there were increases in web-chat service delivery from late 2018 onwards that may have unduly impacted the results.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Help-Seeking from a National Youth Helpline in Australia: An Analysis of Kids Helpline Contacts

Watling

Batchelor²,

Collyer³

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Counselling helplines or hotlines are key support services for young people with mental health concerns or in suicide and self-harm crises. We aimed to describe young peoples’ use of a national youth helpline (Kids Helpline, Australia, KHL) to understand how usage changed over time. A descriptive analysis was conducted on 1,415,228 answered contacts between 2012–2018. We described the trend of service usage over the observed period, the types of youth who used the service, and the problems young people contacted the service about. Phone (APC = −9.1, KHL: −10.4 to −7.8, p < 0.001) and email (APC = −13.7, 95%CI: −17.1 to −10.2, p < 0.001) contacts decreased over time whereas webchat contacts increased (APC = 16.7, 95%CI: 11.7 to 22.0, p < 0.001). With this increase in webchat contacts, there was an associated increase in total webchat contact duration. Concerns raised in contacts to the service were primarily related to emotional wellbeing and mental health concerns (53.2% phone, 57.3% webchat, 58.2% email) followed by social relationship issues (20.4% phone, 20.3% webchat, 16.8% email) and family relationships (19.4% phone, 17.2% webchat, 21.8% email). The increased preference for online text-based information and counselling services can help inform development of services for young people and allocation of staff/service training and resources.

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“…Self-harm or suicide (n = 14). Publications from the United States, China, Australia, and Greece indicated increases in suicidal ideation during the pandemic (Batchelor et al, 2021;Hill et al, 2021;Kaparounaki et al, 2020;Raviv et al, 2021;Son et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020). In Japan, no significant change in the suicide rate among youth was noted during the first wave of the pandemic (Isumi et al, 2020), but the monthly suicide rate among people younger than 20 increased by 49% during the second wave (Tanaka & Okamoto, 2021).…”

Section: Youth Mental Health During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The participants in these studies were often those seeking or receiving services, including primary mental health care (Nicholas et al, 2021), emergency psychiatric services (Ferrando et al, 2021;Leeb et al, 2020), and smoking cessation support (Ho et al, 2020). Many studies were focused on youth with pre-existing mental health conditions (Hawke et al, 2020;Ligus et al, 2021), such as ADHD (Becker et al, 2020;Bobo et al, 2020), and were generally conducted among adolescent or young adult populations, though two included younger children (Batchelor et al, 2021;Bobo et al, 2020).…”

Section: Delivery Of Youth Substance Use or Mental Health Services During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in youth mental health, psychological wellbeing, and substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review

Zolopa¹,

Burack²,

O’Connor³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: The focus of this review was to assess changes in youth mental health, psychological wellbeing, or substance use, as well as changes or disruptions to the delivery of mental health or substance use services for young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: We conducted a rapid review of the literature on our outcomes of interest among youth (age <=25) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Primary studies and systematic reviews on change were eligible for inclusion. Searches were conducted in PubMed and Embase in May 2021, and two reviewers screened studies for inclusion. We report results using a narrative synthesis.Results: We included 156 primary publications. A variety of methods were used to assess change, including prospective assessment of longitudinal cohorts, retrospective recall by participants in cross-sectional and qualitative studies, and comparison of peri-pandemic data to pre-pandemic normative values. Publications regarding mental health (n = 121) and psychological wellbeing (n = 26) generally indicated poor outcomes during the pandemic period. Publications on substance use (n = 41) revealed overall declines or unchanged patterns of use, though certain groups reported increased or problematic use. Studies of service delivery (n = 11) indicated a generally positive reception for helplines and telehealth, although some youth experienced difficulties accessing mental health services. Conclusions: The evidence indicates negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people’s mental health, although declines in alcohol and nicotine use were also found. Services will need to continue to adapt as the pandemic progresses, particularly to support disadvantaged youth who lack access to telehealth resources.

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Use of Kids Helpline by Children and Young People in Australia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cited by 57 publications

References 23 publications

Kidcope and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding High School Students’ Coping and Emotional Well-Being

Kidcope and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding High School Students’ Coping and Emotional Well-Being

Help-Seeking from a National Youth Helpline in Australia: An Analysis of Kids Helpline Contacts

Changes in youth mental health, psychological wellbeing, and substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review

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