Toronto's board of health says more mental health resources are needed for child and teens because they are still suffering negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent studies show increase in depression, screen time, physical inactivity among youth, board saysDr. Eileen de Villa, the city's medical officer of health, speaks to reporters following the Board of Health meeting on Monday.
Specifically, the board said the province should address wait times for treatment and increase access to care for students in distress. The board also decided to recommend that the city ask the province to work with school boards on the issue. Its recommendations will go to the next city council meeting.
"Students were actually behaving erratically. They were not really socializing with one another. There was an increase in violence in schools, an increase in sexual assaults. I think it's all compounded," he said. A view of an empty hallway at Wexford Collegiate School for Arts in Toronto on Aug. 27, 2020 during the first year of the pandemic.
More than 88 per cent of children and teens spend three hours a day in front of a screen in their free time, while 31 per cent spend more than five hours on social media each day, up from 21 per cent in 2019.Colleen Russell-Rawlins, the Toronto District School Board's director of education, told the board that the TDSB, along with other school boards in Ontario and North America, has seen an increase in violence and aggression among young people.
Brendan Browne, director of education for the Toronto Catholic District School Board, told the board of health that being apart was difficult for students during the pandemic. Now that students are back in class, Browne said it is important that students are together safely.