The long-term psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on at-risk youth has been severe and will continue to be so, says Nava Barak, president of Elem, a major voluntary organization that helps distressed Israeli teens.:

Loneliness has become more difficult, and teens have lost the ability to have a personal relationship or empathy for others. “This is the order of the hour, to see the youth, to take an interest and support them. We need to recalculate a route to help,” said Barak. 

Speaking at a Tel Aviv conference on mental resilience, Barak referred to the ongoing damage posed by the pandemic on school dropouts, homeless and victims of violence at home and in the street. The reports of family and street violence have increased by 150%. The number of crimes in which the youth are involved or have been victimized by them has doubled. The rate of teens trying to harm themselves has increased 1.8 times. Requests for psychological help have tripled compared to two years ago, she said. 

Elem was established 38 years ago with the aim of helping at-risk youth, to improve their situation. In the past year, it has helped tens of thousands of teens and young people on the streets, in youth centers, on the Internet. Elem works in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Welfare, other government ministries, local authorities and philanthropic organizations.  

“I call it the ‘mental long COVID,” she said, referring to ordinary Long Covid as the continued physical side effects on about five percent of those who have recovered from the Coronavirus but suffer from memory loss, pain, difficulty sleeping, lack of energy and more.

“The loneliness among at-risk youth has become more serious in the absence of a stable framework over such a long period. The youth have lost the ability to have a personal connection or empathy. All this has led to increased violence, use of addictive substances, suicide attempts, eating disorders and more,” said Barak. 

She further explained that while many services were closed or reduced due to Corona restrictions, Elem social workers and volunteers continued to operate in all arenas – online, via phones and on the street, day and night, to provide at-risk youth with a stable framework and contact.

The circle of risk has been expanding under the pandemic, she said, and teenagers who had not previously suffered difficulties have turned to the organization for help. The risk has become present in many more homes. Adolescents who lived in dysfunctional homes or had no social and educational frameworks before Corona have experienced great suffering, said Barak. 

Barak concluded by saying: “We must see at-risk youth, be interested in them and supportive, as parents and also as a society. We need to provide tools, set boundaries and strengthen the formal and informal means of support.” Adolescence, she noted, is hard enough even without a pandemic and dysfunctional families.