Children’s Hospital Colorado sounded the alarm yesterday. Our youth are at extraordinarily high risk for mental health problems.

It isn’t only the state of Colorado. This mental health crisis is national. It’s a crisis that has been brewing for several years. It is a crisis that the lockdowns, the masks, and the adult temper tantrums over this Wuhan flu blew wide open. 

We’ve discussed many times on this blog how the lockdowns are harming our kids. We’ve been sounding the alarm for a year now about how locking our healthy kids away and forcing them in to pandemic theatre regarding masks is harmful to their mental health as well as hindering their ability to relate to their peers and the adults around them. 

Children’s Hospital Colorado rang the bell very loudly yesterday. Look at the statistics. 

The numbers are striking: Between January and April, behavioral health visits to Children’s Hospital Colorado pediatric emergency departments were up 72% over the same time period in 2019. In April alone, those visits were up 90%, according to Children’s Hospital.

In Colorado Springs, behavioral health visits to the emergency department shot up 145% as compared to the first fourth months of 2020.

The Pediatric Mental Health Institute at Children’s Hospital Colorado has seen twice as many patients reporting increased anxiety, depression and feelings of isolation and social disconnectedness.

“I’ve been in practice for over 20 years in pediatrics,” said Dr. David Brumbaugh, chief medical officer for Children’s Hospital Colorado, “and I’ve never seen anything like the demand for mental health services in the last 15 months.”

Really look at those statistics. Are you alarmed? You should be! Are you worried for our kids future and their mental health. I am. The issue isn’t just Colorado. It’s, as I stated above, national. Health experts in Seattle are sounding the alarm as well. 

“Since the pandemic began in March 2020 through February 2021, we have recorded a 67% increase in emergency visits for children, youth and teens in mental distress,” said Ladish.
Ladish said 60% of the ER visits for mental health crises are attributed to teens 15 to 18-years-old. Youth between 12 and 14-years-old compose 36% of the mental health crisis visits, and children under age 11 account for 4%.

Of course, many experts are saying the problem isn’t new. Well, no. It isn’t exactly NEW. But over this last year, what has changed? 

Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps it is some of the following:

Our kids were told to engage full-time on computer screens even as “experts” had been sounding the alarm about the harmful effects of too much screen time for the last several years. 

• Our kids were told THEY are dangerous to teachers and schools so STAY HOME.
• Playgrounds were chained off.
• Sports were totally cancelled across much of the country.
• Kids with special needs have completely regressed.
• Arts were cancelled as were graduations, prom, birthdays, and so much more. 
• Our kids were ISOLATED and made to feel as if they were the dangerous ones. 
• The adults in charge of our state governments decided to take this path. The CDC and Fauci the Toad have put out mixed messages this entire year, with the ONLY consistency being that our kids are disenfranchised and left behind. 

The NY Times wonders if we should measure pandemic learning loss from last year as it might be harmful. Harmful to whom? The teachers. Besides, running these measurements, according to those The NY Times interviewed, is more about inequalities and racism. 

A preliminary national study of 98,000 students from Policy Analysis for California Education, an independent group with ties to several large universities, found that as of late fall, second graders were 26 percent behind where they would have been, absent the pandemic, in their ability to read aloud accurately and quickly. Third graders were 33 percent behind.

Compared to 2019 and early 2020, seniors who graduated in 2021 are barely 22% proficient in science. The stats from last year are in the toilet and have very little to do with race and much to do with the unions keeping the schools closed. 

Do you know why the learning loss is so severe? Because kids don’t do well, no matter what grade they are in, if they are in front of a screen for hours at a time! Furthermore, the kids are told to stay away from their peers, and wear masks. 

But the kids are RESILIENT! is the cry! That is complete and utter bullshit. 

https://twitter.com/moyocoyotzinnow/status/1397274475247415300

In a class of 30 kids in high school, eleven have D’s and seven are failing outright. The kids who are failing? The year prior were pulling down high B’s and A’s.

Resilient? Not so much. 

The adults in the room, the so-called experts continue to play games with our kids lives. 

Children’s Hospital is sounding the alarm. Our children are at severe risk and the pandemic was a major contributor to what we are dealing with now. 

Yes, we NEED the mental health resources for our children. We NEED the money to aid in addressing the issues. What we do NOT need is our taxpayer dollars going to some goddamned vaccine lottery game. 

Our kids SHOULD matter, and quite frankly, their mental health is and must be a higher priority than this blasted virus.

Tragic & why I sometimes get emotional when I do media interviews about the impact of the COVID pandemic on kids. The problem is not *just* prolonged, unscientific school closures. The problem is systematically putting the needs of kids and the most vulnerable in our society last https://t.co/7hM0pRPd5M

— Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) May 25, 2021

Children’s Hospital gave us our wake up call. We’d better heed it and fast. 

Feature Photo Credit: teenager on bench, royalty free stock photo by mooremedia via Shutterstock, cropped and modified