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Long-term research priorities for mental health of children and young people informed by lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Nature Mental Health volume 2, pages 126–128 (2024)Cite this article

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The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented developmental disruptions to children and young people. Here we address its long-term impact on children and young people, relay their views on important issues for mental health in the context of the pandemic and provide recommendations for future research priorities.

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Fig. 1

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank S. Douch for input on the figure; and the children and young people, service users and carers for their lived experience input. B.C.F.C. is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MR/W006820/1) and is a King’s College London member of the MRC Doctoral Training Partnership in Biomedical Sciences. V.P. is recipient of a Clinical Lectureship funded by the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, IoPPN, KCL and of the Starter Grant for Clinical Lecturers, which is supported by Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS), the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the British Heart Foundation, Versus Arthritis, Diabetes UK, the British Thoracic Society (Helen and Andrew Douglas bequest), and the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland (AoP) (SGL024\1092). J.D. is supported by NIHR Clinician Science Fellowship award (CS‐2018‐18‐ST2‐014) and has received support from a Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Research Training Fellowship (MR/L017105/1) and Psychiatry Research Trust Peggy Pollak Research Fellowship in Developmental Psychiatry. E.S. is supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at SLaM NHS Foundation Trust (IS‐BRC‐1215‐20018), the NIHR through a program grant (RP‐PG‐1211‐20016) and Senior Investigator Award (NF‐SI‐0514‐10073 and NF‐SI‐0617‐10120), the European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative (EU‐IMI 115300), Autistica (7237) MRC (MR/R000832/1, MR/P019293/1), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC 003041/1) and GSST Charity (GSTT EF1150502) and the Maudsley Charity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Brian C. F. Ching, Valeria Parlatini, Johnny Downs & Emily Simonoff

  2. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Johnny Downs & Emily Simonoff

Authors
  1. Brian C. F. Ching
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  2. Valeria Parlatini
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  4. Emily Simonoff
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Contributions

B.C.F.C. and E.S. conceptualized the paper. B.C.F.C. wrote the manuscript with input from V.P., J.D. and E.S.

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Correspondence to Emily Simonoff.

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Ching, B.C.F., Parlatini, V., Downs, J. et al. Long-term research priorities for mental health of children and young people informed by lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nat. Mental Health 2, 126–128 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00183-0

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