BCCDC survey shows young people hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Young people are being hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic due to loss of jobs, mental health concerns and less support from the province.

These findings come from a new study by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control that looks at how young Canadians under 30 have been negatively impacted in the last year and half.

Dr. Bonnie Leadbeater with the University of Victoria, and co-author of the study, said young people were facing ageism throughout the pandemic.

“People were saying, that age group, ‘They’re just missing their friends. Isn’t that sad. They’re all out there partying at every opportunity they get,’ and that kind of stereotype of young people really missed the picture entirely,” Leadbeater said.

She added young peoples contribution oftentimes got erased.

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“Youth across different groups were amazingly resilient. They continued with their studies, or they were able to work from home, or they were protecting a family member, so they were very conscious of the purpose of working at home or staying isolated,” she said.

Dr. Hasina Samji, with the BCCDC and lead author of the study says, young adults that were struggling pre-pandemic are continuing to do worse.

“Whether those are sub populations that have existing mental illness, those who have other inequities, they may be racialized, indigenous, young people with disabilities, those are the folks that we really need to look more closely at,” Samji said.

She adds it’s crucial to monitor young adults moving forward, especially as we enter the recovery period.

“For those groups who are worried about the impacts, [that] may not resolve through the hopeful recovery period that we’re going to enter. Those are the groups that we’re really concerned about and we won’t know about those groups, unless we collect data and do that monitoring work,” Samji said.

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Dr. Skye Barbic with UBC Faculty of Medicine, and another author of the study, says in establishing what post-COVID looks like in B.C., there’s a need for various young people to be at the table helping create solutions.

“There’s this common thread across all the work that we did, that young people didn’t feel that they were a part of the decision making or co-design of decisions,” Barbic said.

The study focused on 18 to 30 year olds, partly because prior to the pandemic one in four young people dealt with mental health issues every year – with an increase this year, according to Barbic.

She said young people want be involved not just in mental health planning, but in return to school plans as well.

“Unemployment, they’re going to have generations of debt to deal with, lack of involvement with professors at schools. There’s a lot of transitions that are going to be happening right now and they want to be part of that solution,” Barbic said.

Barbic added it’s also crucial to have diverse young people, from a wide array of backgrounds, at the table.

“That will really show them that there’s been an investment in them, that people care. And that they are the future of their community and they need to be there. It’s quite critical so we don’t forget about them,” Barbic said.