Status: 15.09.2021 4:22 p.m.
The federal government has warned of the psychological and social consequences of the corona pandemic for children and young people. Because school life plays an important role in this, a study is to be carried out.
Federal Family Minister Christine Lambrecht has called for greater support for mentally stressed children in the corona pandemic. The SPD politician made it clear that there is too often a lack of professional help where it is most urgently needed.
“Unfortunately, the effects of the pandemic hit the children and adolescents particularly hard, who also had a hard time before,” said Lambrecht. The children and adolescents need better and earlier care. Parents have to “come to a therapy place very quickly”. The minister emphasized that the aim was to prevent long-term consequential damage.
According to Lambrecht, children suffered from fear, loneliness and a lack of exercise. “These difficult lockdown times, where daycare centers and schools were closed, are having an effect.”
Open schools and daycare centers are important
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn stated that the Federal Government wanted to give children and young people special support on their way back to normal and invest more in prevention and precaution.
Even in the pandemic, children need open schools and daycare centers as well as sports activities in their free time, emphasized Lambrecht. It is important that infection protection measures such as vaccination, testing, distance, hygiene, mask and ventilation / air filter are implemented as a total package.
Expansion of the “early help”
Experts from the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Family also recommend expanding the “early help” and the offers of the educational counseling centers. Health insurance companies and federal states should increasingly advertise U and J examinations at pediatricians or family doctors and intensify their invitation systems. Families with lower incomes should be given an affordable family vacation.
Study on schools planned
According to the black-red government coalition, the role of schools in the pandemic should be examined in more detail in a study. “The federal government is striving to launch a study for the school sector that is comparable to the Corona-Kita study,” says a joint report by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, which the cabinet dealt with. For the 21-page report, a working group from both houses, with the participation of experts, examined the health effects on children and adolescents caused by Corona.
A larger study has been running at the daycare centers since last year, which is being implemented by the German Youth Institute and the Robert Koch Institute. She researches the role children and daycare centers play in the spread of Corona.
Help for the mentally ill during the pandemic
The federal government had already launched a two billion euro program “Catching up after Corona for children and young people” for the years 2021 and 2022. This should enable them to catch up quickly and make up for what they have missed – not only with a view to the subject matter, but also to their social life.