Covid-19

In this article, we feature photographs and cellphilms produced by 13 girls and  young women (aged 13 to 19) from urban, rural, and Indigenous areas of   Quebec, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed within girls’ studies, we present girls’ and young women’s creations and co-analysis about wellbeing during a period of lockdown. We explore how girls and young women restructured their routines at home as well as negotiated motivation and the pressure to be productive. We note that girls had more time than usual for creative activities and self-discovery and that they engaged with the politics of the pandemic and advocated for collective forms of wellbeing. Importantly, girls reported that participating in this research improved their wellbeing during this lockdown.

Background

Relocation and resettlement are often accompanied by physical, mental, and social challenges for migrant youth. Community-based programs have the potential to benefit their wellbeing and resettlement. However, there is limited research on the mechanisms by which these interventions work from the perspective of youth, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. By including youth’s lived experiences, community-based programs may gain a richer understanding of how to best deliver their programs and contribute to the wellbeing of migrant youth during the pandemic.

Objectives

This study aimed to:
1) Describe migrant youth’s experiences participating in Say Ça!, a community-based welcome program in Montreal, during the pandemic; and
2) Explore the underlying processes that contribute to migrant youth’s wellbeing and resettlement from the perspectives of service users, and how these have been affected by the pandemic.
Methods.

Six youth from Say Ça! participated in a photo novella project to reflect on their experiences in the program during COVID-19 and how these contributed to their wellbeing. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted to document the meaning behind the journal entries and accompanying images.

Results

Participants identified challenges and benefits on youth wellbeing of engaging in the program during the pandemic. Lessons are drawn on the underlying processes of effective community-based welcome programs and necessary changes to best respond to the needs of migrant youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic is causing extensive morbidity and mortality and is fueling psychological distress across populations. Early evidence has shown an increase in anxiety, depression and sleep problems in the general population.1
,2
Although pandemics shatter the functioning of communities and families globally, there is a paucity of studies targeting the effects of pandemics on youth mental health.
As mental health professionals, our fields have become aware of how the COVID-19 outbreak represents an extraordinarily stressful experience for youths, including how necessary public health measures may also threaten personal and collective meaning-making, and disrupt family dynamics and youths’ usual social environment. Because of the COVID-19−related school closures and social distancing measures, millions of children have been confined at home. Although families, communities, and schools have attempted to adapt, at times successfully, many children and youth have been deprived of structured support, trapped in dysfunctional family settings, and are relying largely on peer relations through the unsupervised use of social media.3
In the absence of much needed evidence, clinical experience and available evidence on stress-related disorders in emergency settings is provisionally informing clinical practice and defining the role of child mental health services during a pandemic. Although it is impossible and premature to address all aspects of pediatric mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to begin conceptualizing what this pandemic has meant for our practice and where and how we can promote pediatric mental health during a global emergency that is not currently remitting.

• COVID-19 lockdown left parents as the sole respondents for their children’s needs.
• We examine parents’ reports on the response their child received to their needs during the lockdown.
• Parents of older children reported less fulfillment of children’s needs.
• Societies must ensure pandemics do not create context for child neglect.

The pandemic has highlighted the complexity of public health measures and their side effects, the intricacy of the underlying health, social and political phenomena at play as well as their specificity for marginalized minority communities. Based on this experience, this commentary suggests that it would be relevant in the future to develop consultation mechanisms that take into account the entire population, including marginalized minority groups, in order to better inform decision-making processes in times of pandemic. In a context of fluid crisis, any consultation process must take into account the limits of what is possible and mourn the comprehensiveness in favour of repeated iterations of dialogue, mediation and decision-making. This means creating conditions favourable to the consideration of the most vulnerable people and groups’ voices by public authorities. In order to prepare for the next crises, it is necessary to develop strong links between public institutions and communities, both of majorities and minorities, in order to define the mechanisms favouring the emergence of truly inclusive public health, taking into account the physical, mental and social health of the population.

Guide à l’intention du personnel enseignant pour favoriser le développement du bien-être et de la santé mentale en contexte scolaire au vu des nouvelles réalités imposées par la pandémie

What factors influence the impact of the crisis associated with COVID-19 on Montreal cultural communities?

Our study indicates that certain groups in cultural communities are made vulnerable by the intersection of multiple economic and social factors, in particular:

• Precarious financial situation;
• Employment in a position at high risk of exposure to COVID ;
• Precarious migration status or lack of status;
• Lack of medical insurance;
• Being allophone;
• Low literacy;
• Being targeted by racism.

These factors may contribute to high levels of infection and psychosocial distress in certain multiethnic, low-income neighbourhoods in Montreal.
Public health policies must take into account the combined impact of these economic, linguistic, sociocultural and migratory factors.

1. Collect data on COVID’s social determinants
2. Facilitate community collaboration and consultation
3. Improve access to health information and guidelines through a multilingual communication
4. Promote access to health and psychosocial services
5. Provide universal access to financial support measures
6. Ensure that COVID-related workplace health and safety measures are respected
7. Guarantee food security
8. Prevent evictions linked to the pandemic
9. Promote family well-being
10. Strengthen intercommunity relations and act against racism

What factors influence the impact of the crisis associated with COVID-19 on  Montreal cultural communities?

Our study indicates that certain groups in cultural communities are made  vulnerable by the intersection of multiple economic and social factors, in  particular :

• Precarious financial situation;
• Employment in a position at high risk of exposure to COVID ;
• Precarious migration status or lack of status;
• Lack of medical insurance;
• Being allophone;
• Low literacy;
• Being targeted by racism.

These factors may contribute to high levels of infection and psychosocial  distress in certain multiethnic, low-income neighbourhoods in Montreal.

Public health policies must take into account the combined impact of these  economic, linguistic, sociocultural and migratory factors.

L’étude Réactions a pour but de comprendre de façon longitudinale l’expérience des enfants et adolescents d’âge scolaire de la pandémie de la COVID19 ainsi que ses effets sur eux-mêmes et leurs parents. Plus précisément, il s’agit de :1) Dresser un portrait des connaissances et de la compréhension des jeunes de  la pandémie de la COVID19; 2)Explorer les représentations des jeunes des conséquences positives et négatives des mesures de prévention et de protection imposées en réponse à la COVID19; 3) Identifier les facteurs qui contribuent et nuisent au bien-être des enfants, des adolescents et de leur parent en contexte de confinement et de déconfinement; 4) Décrire l’évolution du bien-être, du fonctionnement parental, du fonctionnement familial et du soutien social des familles du Québec au cours de la crise de la COVID19; 5) Générer des connaissances pouvant être mobilisées par les décideurs afin d’être mieux préparés pour soutenir les familles lors de prochaines situations de crise.