Reports on the mental health of children during the current pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health and economy of the whole country. Although the death toll from this disease is broadcast to the nation on a daily basis, mainly from among the frail elderly population, the impact on children's and young people's mental health is less well reported. Precisely how children and young people are coping with the impact of the pandemic and now two periods of lockdown and its effect on their education, access to health services and emotional health and wellbeing is still being evaluated.

On the first day of the country's second COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, as I walked through the New Forest, I was able to indulge in ‘forest bathing’, an important aspect of preventive mental health in Japanese medicine (Tsunetsugu et al, 2010). And during the first lockdown I had been able to sit in my garden sipping my ice cold beer long into the summer evenings. However, lucky as I have been, what about the plight of other, less fortunate people, and especially children and young people who live in flats in cities and town centres with little immediate access to outdoor spaces?