Impacts of COVID-19 on young people

Kids Helpline, a service of yourtown, reported contacts about child abuse and suicidal concerns have spiked in the past four months during the coronavirus crisis.

yourtown chief executive officer Tracy Adams revealed counsellors actioned an increased 43 per cent emergency 'duty of care' interventions, in the period January 1 to April 30 this year.

Counsellors had to contact emergency services or another agency to protect children and young people who were at imminent risk of significant harm, when compared to the same period last year.

Ms Adams said there were 138 suicide prevention interventions in the first four months of 2020 vs. 118 in 2019.

She said child abuse duty of care interventions sat at 136 vs. 95 for the same period last year.

"Child abuse, of all duty of care interventions in 2020, has overtaken suicide concerns as the number one reason Kids Helpline counsellors enact 'duty of care' emergency interventions," she said.

"This highlights the vulnerability of children and young people during a time community stress and change.

"The intensity of support required by young people contacting Kids Helpline for counselling is increasing. Nationally, the demand for Kids Helpline during the month of April was 49 per cent higher with 37,672 attempts (phone, web, email) than in April 2019."

YMCA WA has warned that the impacts of COVID-19 on young people will be long lasting without interventions and support for young people.

The organisation delivers frontline services and programs in 640 communities across Australia, and have heard the impacts of COVID-19 on young people firsthand.

Younger Australians have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19-related job losses, with 9.9 per cent of workers aged under 20 losing their jobs since March 14..

The Grattan Institute suggested 40 per cent of teenagers, and 30 per cent of those in their 20's, would lose their jobs compared with roughly 25 per cent of age groups ranging from 30-70.

The Y Western Australia chief executive officer Ross Kyrwood said while support subsidies such as JobKeeper were important, many young people were falling through the cracks.

"Unfortunately, many young people have been stood down or made redundant nationally, which has obviously been extremely stressful, and particularly hard for those not eligible for financial support," he said.

"However, it's not just unemployment that is impacting our youth, it's also the disruption to education, reduced community connection and impacts on their mental health.

"As a result of the pandemic we anticipate a large increase in vulnerable young people needing support with family relationships, mental health, domestic abuse, or other needs and from our 175 years' experience, we know that without intervention, these issues are likely to be long lasting."

The YMCA (WA) are now delivering most of their free youth services online, including case work for at risk youth at ymcawa.org.au/.

Mr Kyrwood said they were live streaming Y-Solation activity sessions through social media and one-on-one online drop-in sessions with youth workers.

"Obviously our gyms and leisure centres had to close, so some of our fitness instructors have created online workouts for our health and wellness members and staff, and our community services teams have created virtual play groups.

"However, there is no doubt in my mind that the full range of youth and community services we provide throughout WA, and Australia, are needed more than ever now to help people get through this challenging time."

The Kid's Helpline provides 24/7 counselling and support service specifically for children and young people aged 5 to 25 years.

If you need help please contact 1800 55 1800 or online at kidshelpline.com.au Facebook: @kidshelpline, Insta @kidshelplineau, Twitter @KidsHelplineAU.