ESCAP wants to determine the global impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the mental health of children and adolescents and the service providers who assist and treat these children. The pandemic could result in a dramatic change in clinical practice and how treatment will be administered for new and existing patients. By analyzing hospital practices as they deal with all phases of the crisis, it can offer insights in predicting disorders that might arise from the pandemic, help drive policy decision-making and assist in generating guidelines for any future situations. We aim to build a community where we can exchange knowledge and experience and learn from these unprecedented times.
We would strongly recommend that you take some time to look over the ESCAP policy position paper and the other initiatives we have on the coronavirus pages.
We kindly ask heads of university hospital clinics for child and adolescent psychiatry to fill in this brief survey; it is divided into ten short sections and should not take you longer than 20 minutes to complete. The task can also be delegated to a senior coworker of yours, but we suggest the same person complete the form each time. We will send gentle reminders.
In return for your valuable cooperation in these difficult times, we offer updates based on your anonymized comments, which may enable you to use this information to take necessary steps during the upcoming months. Please contact our editor and specify if you wish to be included in the mailing list (specify COVID-19 in the heading). We will go through all the comments sent to us. All pertinent information will be compiled and edited to allow you to succinctly follow-up on the issues raised by your colleagues.
If possible and as we have done with the first round of results, we aim to compile and publish the results early in 2021 in European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry or other scientific journals. Please contact our editor to be included in the COVID-19 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consortium if you have helped distribute and/or complete the survey on a regular basis (all names and affiliations to be co-published in an online supplement). As the completion of the survey is anonymous, if you do not contact us by email, we will not be able to include you in the consortium.
Privacy and data security are of utmost importance to us. The questions do not require you to divulge any personal data about patients or your staff. We encourage you to complete the survey in full, but if you do not have access to some information then please leave those answers and complete as much as you can.
