What parents should worry about is a sudden change in the child’s behavior. This is the moment when parents should pay attention and start talking to the child – said Dr. Tomasz Rowiński, psychologist, director of the Environmental Mental Health Center for children and adolescents in TVN24’s “One for One”. He commented on the Unaweza Foundation’s youth health report.
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The Unaweza Foundation, founded by journalist, social activist and traveler Martyna Wojciechowska, has published young people’s mental health report. It shows that every third student has symptoms of depression, every fifth has no will to live, and almost nine percent have attempted suicide.
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Tomasz Rowiński, a psychologist, director of the Community Mental Health Center for children and adolescents, said on Saturday in “One for One” that “the report shows that two key dimensions for mental health, i.e. relationships and a sense of agency, development are in 13-14- youngsters at a very low level and that is appalling.”
“We are not keeping up with the changes after the pandemic”
When asked why students and teenagers in Poland today see and evaluate themselves so badly, he said that one of the factors is the crisis of the family. He added that the report talks about the so-called “parental burnout”.
– The second thing is the school, which cannot cope with the situation after the pandemic and how the pandemic accelerated certain processes also in the area of mental health crisis. The third thing is no change. We cannot operate as before after the pandemic. This can be seen in health care and education. We are not keeping up with the changes that took place after the pandemic – said Rowiński.
Psychologist: Parents should be concerned about a sudden change in their child’s behavior
He was asked when parents should be concerned. He said that “if a child has lost something and is sad, that’s a normal reaction.” – What parents should worry about is a sudden change in the child’s behavior. So he was sociable, he went to parties and suddenly he reads books, stays at home, locks himself in his room. Or it was more introverted, read books, stayed at home and suddenly started partying and going to Sopot with friends – he explained.
As he said, “this is the moment when parents should pay attention and start talking to the child.”
Main photo source: TVN24