Youthline has seen a surge in the number of young Kiwis accessing its services during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a recent survey highlighting the negative impact Level 4 lockdown has had on their mental health.
The results from the survey conducted by Youthline revealed today that over half of the 975 respondents, 72 per cent, said the lockdown had a negative impact on their mental health, especially those respondents under the age of 25.
The main reasons young Kiwis felt their mental health had been negatively impacted while in lockdown included feelings of isolation, missing face-to-face connection and those living in toxic environments.
Some respondents said they felt distressed, isolated and were struggling with their overall mental wellbeing, while others were craving a return to normal life.
The youth helpline has also seen a 50 per cent increase in texts from Kiwis under the age of 25 contacting them for support. Additional staff had to be sourced to assist with the increase in contact during the lockdown.
Since Alert Level 3 began, Shae Ronald, Youthline's CEO says that increase in contact hasn’t dropped.
“We haven’t noticed a change. A lot of young people are still not at school and are experiencing normal feelings of anxiety and stress from being in both levels of lockdown,” said Ms Ronald.
She said many are missing their peer friendship groups, and people they have connections with, while some have had to be in lockdown in toxic home environments, or have existing mental health issues that are being heightened because of Covid-19.
"One in five texts we receive are around suicide and then one in four texts are around anxiety and depression and around self-harm. Family conflict those sorts of issues coming through quite a lot."
The lockdown period has also seen Youthline experience a big spike in the number of external interventions it actions, situations where outside agencies have had to help with particular cases.
“In the lock down period we have seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of contacts from young people sharing around suicide risk and care & protection risk,” said Ms Ronald.
Care and protection risk, she explains, is young people who are unsafe at home or at risk from others in their life or those they live with.
“For a number of these we have taken action alongside young people to support them to access safety and support. At times this has included crisis and emergency services.”
She says Youthline knew lockdown would be hard, especially for young people in unsafe homes, and took any action it could ahead of time to prepare, including a social media campaign to remind them of their services.
Ms Ronald says Youthline wants to continue to be there for young Kiwis, but with a $300,000 funding short fall is in need of support itself. The organisation has called on the Government to help out.
"We need to find a way through the goodness of peoples hearts, and Government preferably to fund that."
She says Covid-19 has severely impacted Youthline's ability to fundraise the way it usually does, with minimal chances to plan or hold the usual events it relies on.
Some of the organisation's seasoned donors are also facing financial uncertainty because of the virus' impact, and can no longer give as much, or in some cases anything at all. But with online donations available there is some hope.
"We’ve released a Givealittle page and we have our donation page on our website," she says.
"We’ve had some amazing support from some of our corporate partners to be able to set up our helplines from home ahead of the lockdown which was a huge undertaking."
For anyone in need of Youthline's help, who may be afraid to reach out, Ms Ronald has a message.
"We’re a confidential and non-judgmental organisation that many young people in similar situations have reached out for us to help.
"You're brave and you don’t need to be alone in this. You deserve safety and support."
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