Child and adolescent self-harm in a pandemic world: Evidence from a decade of data

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the COVID-19 pandemic impact on child and adolescent mental health, specifically self-harm. This paper serves to form a basis for understanding and planning an appropriate response to the present and longstanding child and adolescent mental health needs with global recommendations for integrated community support and disaster preparedness. METHODS: Anonymous, aggregated data from an established regional child and adolescent addictions and mental health service was employed to examine differences in the rates of self-harm as the primary reason for referral among the health-seeking population represented by quarter by year from 2010-2022 to examine whether self-harm rates have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Females and self-defined sex had higher rates of self-harm referrals compared to males. Both total and first-time self-harm referrals since the COVID outbreak in 2020 did not exceed the highest quarterly rates before COVID since 2010. DISCUSSION: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, self-harm rates in one Canadian region remain stable and lower than the highest rates previously observed over the last decade. Given misplaced alarmist news and reports, a coherent, evidence-based, dynamic national response to mental health, social support, and disaster planning is required to fully understand how best to respond to the pandemic in general with a sustainable social support and disaster preparedness policy strategy and specifically the ongoing and pandemic-related mental health needs of the child and adolescent help-seeking population.