Are Indian Kids Ready To Cope Up with Corona Virus??
Impact of Coronavirus on Physical & Mental Health of 2.2 Billion Children ?
How well are Indian Kids & their Parent’s prepared to Battle It Out with #covid19 in case the virus makes A unwelcoming entry in their home??
And have Indian parents during the 7 month long lock down done enough psychological and emotional preparations with their kids on how to cope up with this dreaded Novel Coronavirus if they end up contracting the strain.
Preliminary studies have confirmed that adolescents children aged 3-6 years are more likely to develop symptoms of restlessness & anxiety about fear of their parent’s getting affected with virus.
And children aged 7-16 years were experiencing lack of attention and spending lesser hours concentrating about their education and with excessive broadcast of news across all News papers, Television channels & Social Media Platforms persistently probing their parent’s about growth of Coronavirus resulting in growth of fears about being separated from their parent’s , change in behavior due to loss of appetite & disturbed sleep patterns.
Our early assessment shows A worrisome picture where Indian Parent’s have done little or no planning & have wasted these precious months counselling-educating their kids on mental & physical agony including isolation at home/hospital they may have to encounter and the virus reporting protocols they need to strictly adhere to for well being of all family members.
Impact of Coronavirus on Children Around the World & How School Closures are effecting Mental Health & Emotional Well Being of Kids
Shutting Down of Schools & Educational institutions have directly impacted 91% of the world school going child population.
The disruption brought about by closure of schools have led to significant disruptions in daily routine of the children adding to reduced social interactions, drop in learning abilities & sharp decline in sports/physical activities directly linked to creative thought processes of children.
The downside of such prolonged school shut downs may lead to increased dependency of children on their parents and online -digital education from home will lead to change in their daily routines likely resulting in higher resistance to restart daily physical schooling sessions after the lock downs have ended.
Impact of Coronavirus on Children with Special Needs:
Not only healthy but the prolonged Lock down has also badly caused massive changes in the needs of millions of underprivileged children with special needs & learning disabilities such as Autism and Cerebral Palsy etc as this prolonged stay at home situation has aggravated their medical conditions & absent of ongoing treatment has only resulted in increased Children-Parents conflicts due to lack of professional knowledge of parent’s and their expertise in handling such complex emotional situations on daily basis.
There’s urgent need for professional attendants, care givers, counselors & pediatricians to identify the physical manifestations of growth in their mental-emotional stress levels and start delivering solutions basis their creative and academic engagement through virtual/tele methods and stop their condition from going out of hands of helpless parent’s.
Reference Read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7444649
Impact of Coronvirus on Children & Role of Parent’s in Addressing New Mental & Emotional Health Needs of Children as A result of Lock down.
During our discussion with families in our close network, shocking revelation came where parent’s aren’t even aware of helpline numbers & list of Dedicated corona virus hospitals in their cities or telephone numbers of hospitals and reporting guidelines about sharing information about covid 19 symptoms with medical authorities
Majority of urban population in India it seems has spent the initial 90 days of forced lock down in watching netflix and amazon, making dishes & posting images of their food & beverage parties on social media, doing regular household chores and worrying about having missed their annual holidays, shopping trips and cafe dine out plans with friends & office colleagues.
There’s A old saying by George Quint – which I wish to quote here-If you’ve Selfish Ignorant Citizens, You’re only going to get Selfish, Ignorant Leaders
The current abysmal levels of acceptance about this threatening disease which majority of Indian population is turning A blind eye about the levels of health, emotional and economical damage can be thrown upon them by this invisible Virus.
I strongly urge Indian parent’s to acknowledge that Corona virus can only be beaten with early adoption of face mask wearing habits, regular hand washing and following social distancing norms of 6Ft and not by some divine -magical intervention.
So instead of worrying it’s high time Indian Parent’s start counseling their children about our 8 point guide as shown in the above visual.
Remember our government on both center and state levels have pretty much thrown the hat in the ring in their fight against this medical emergency and left it for citizens to mange it on their own and how everyday new heart breaking stories are tumbling out about people losing lives due to non availability of Ventilators, Medical Oxygen, lack of trained Doctor’s-Nurses-Sanitation Staff & how ill prepared our Public and Private Healthcare infrastructure is to manage influx of large number of Coronavirus Patients in both Urban & Rural areas.
Indian Parent’s without wasting anymore time about what all can go wrong on personal, economic, employment & financial front due to this unprecedented health crisis & please start preparing on war footing at both individual & community levels to device ways to break the chain of spread of Coronavirus in your country, family, community & at your place of work.
#jaihind