Students cite social isolation as toughest pandemic challenge

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An online survey of over 400 high school students aimed at probing what pandemic life has been like found 93 per cent of respondents feel their mental health has worsened while nearly 40 per cent plan to change their career pathways.

Half of students wish to be back in the classroom fulltime by no later than the end of April.

The survey was created by Rishi Naidu, a Grade-11 student at Massey Secondary School, as an outlet for teenagers to share their experiences.

“I found out a lot of my friends were reluctant to share how they’ve been impacted by the lockdown,” Naidu said.

“Opening up a survey allows them to express their true thoughts. I wanted to capture that and use that information to help high schoolers in any way possible.”

Teachers have tried really hard to make this year as enjoyable as possible

Naidu said it’s no surprise that students are experiencing mental health challenges.

“High school is supposed to be some of your best years and we’ve missed out on a lot already,” Naidu said. “Sports, clubs, extracurricular activities … the social interactions are a big part of the high school experience.”

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The survey was conducted from Jan. 4 to Feb. 6 with 407 high school students responding.

Most students were from Essex County with a smattering from Chatham-Kent. Of those responding, 60 per cent attended schools in the public board.

Melissa Farrand, a superintendent of education for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, said there has been an uptick in the number of high school students seeking help for mental health issues.

“The most common concerns are feelings of loneliness and isolation,” Farrand said.

“There’s a feeling of loss and disappointment because social integration and building relationships is an important part of a teenager’s life.”

Both the Catholic and public school boards have teams of mental health professionals, both internally and with community organizations, to support students and their families.

Farrand said the Catholic board uses a tiered approach to mental health.

“All our staff promote mental health awareness in the classroom,” Farrand said.

“When a student presents more of a mental health risk, we take a targeted approach and refer them to our mental health support team.

“The last tier in intensive cases is working with our community partners to make clear pathways of care for families.”

Though there haven’t been obvious signs of shifting career choices with students still selecting next year’s courses, Farrand said such a trend wouldn’t be surprising.

“I believe this pandemic will make people look at everything differently — career choices, business, how we interact with others,” Farrand said. “It will never be the same.”

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The Greater Essex County District School Board’s mental health lead Charysse Pawley said the pandemic has also resulted in innovation and a cultivation of new technology skills.

One of the public board’s new programs to emerge out of the COVID-19 pandemic is virtual counselling.

“That has provided a safe platform for families who might find it difficult or can’t afford gas money to come in from Leamington for example,” Pawley said. “We’ll continue that.”

Pawley added another innovation that has proven a success has been a series of virtual mental health and coping seminars developed with Maryvale.

“We’re getting 100 per cent more people taking the virtual seminars,” Pawley said. “Where I’d normally get 70 to come in person, I have 140 people registered online.”

Pawley said there has also been an increase in students being referred for help with attendance issues. Related to that are troubling trends in the sleep patterns of students.

“We’re preparing how to support these students because there’s a gap in learning that has to be made up,” Pawley said.

Both boards will run virtual summer programming, and, if the public health restrictions are relaxed, some in-person instruction to help close learning gaps.

Pawley added the website for School Mental Health Ontario (smho-smso.ca) is also an excellent resource for students and parents in dealing with all of these issues.

Farrand said just what school will look like this fall remains undecided.

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“Boards will rely on guidance from the government and public health on that,” Farrand said. “That’s not been decided yet.”

In the meantime, Naidu plans to conduct more surveys aimed at exploring the responses from his first survey.

He’ll share that information with school boards and other community organizations to help them craft their strategies.

“Teachers have tried really hard to make this year as enjoyable as possible,” Naidu said.

“Giving them this data will be help in pin pointing areas to focus on.”

dwaddell@postmedia.com

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