Experts Warn of Rising Depression Risk in Youth as Lockdown Measures Continue

The issue of the harmful effects of confinement on the mental and physical health of children, raised by pediatricians and child psychiatrists, is not without worrying parents. More and more, the latter have noted in their children, deprived of their socio-educational activities and forced to distance learning unusual, behavioral disorders. And the situation is likely to get worse with the government’s option of ensuring a gradual deconfinement.

On the subject, the Moroccan Association of Pediatrics does not hide its fears. In a letter addressed to the Minister of Health, it alerts to the mental and physical sequelae that children could suffer after such a long confinement. Based on several scientific studies, including one, carried out by an English university which warns of the risk of depression and anxiety facing children and adolescents due to confinement, it has asked the supervisory authority to exceptionally authorize children and adolescents to go out of their homes to rediscover their environment and readapt socially.

For his part, the deputy of the constitutional assembly group (RNI-UC), recommends to the government to ensure psychological follow-up to mitigate the psychological effects of confinement on children. As for the Chouala Association for Education and Culture (ACEC), it calls for psychological treatment of children and adolescents and the maintenance of the budget for the "Vacances pour tous" program in the amending finance law to allow them to relax and have fun, after several months of isolation.