There is even talk of the “Covid Generation”, to refer to the children and young people who lived, and are experiencing, their adolescence at the time of the pandemic. And it was understood, often late, that when we talked about fragile people it was necessary to think not only of the elderly, but also of them. It was discussed during a meeting, organized by the Rava Foundation, part of the initiative «In Pharmacy for Bambthis” (sponsored by FOFI and Federfarma, with the unconditional support of Solgar) aimed at professionals – pharmacists – who manage real centers in the area who can do a lot in this complex period, for the health of the community, including children. Themes of the meeting: isolation, social distancing, distance learning, anxiety and uncertainty that have characterized recent times.
Requests for help
A part is given Antonella Costantino, director of the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Unit at the Milan Polyclinic, underlined how the Covid emergency has greatly increased – after an initial period of pause due to the fear of contagion – the requests for help, which the Services, struggling with chronic lack of means, have often struggled to respond; on the other among young people there has been an increase in the willingness to help others, also testified by the doubling of requests for social services. “It is also probable that the great request for help, and this is a positive element” underlined Costantino, “also depends on the fact that children and families are now less ashamed to ask for an intervention because they can attribute to the pandemic, which certainly had the its weight, all the “faults” of current but often past difficulties ».
“Psychic antibodies” for the future
An encouraging reading of the Covid phenomenon in relation to adolescents comes from Andrea Panico, psychologist, psychotherapist and President of Telemaco di Jonas Milano. «The pandemic – which certainly no one hoped for – forced the children» he said «to come out of an often suffocating cultural maternage. Teenagers were obliged, and this is good, to create psychic antibodies to face their future ».
Between “implosion” and “explosion”
From Carla Gatto, President of the Juvenile Court of Milan, and from her specific point of observation comes another reading of this period: “I boys” he recalled “During the various lock downs, they reacted either by imploding, locking themselves up in the house, or exploding . In the last ten months there has been a 41% increase in cases of abuse directed at family members, which often involved children under 15 and the response of adults cannot be, Cat pointed out, “criminal” because behind these attacks there is a experience of deprivation, a great psychic suffering that must be welcomed in order to do “education”. And when it is possible “prevention”.
New phenomena
The first step, explained Gatto, consists in “not be afraid to see “and then” knowing what to see “, catching the warning signs, and finally understanding what to do.
“The school”, added the President of the Juvenile Court, “has a priority role in all this, but there are also the social services, the principals in the area, and above all there is thea whole community that must feel involved».
«It is scary to think – he concluded – of the maxi fights, about which so much has been written and read lately. No longer the usual neighborhood bands that compete for the conquest of the territory; rather young people, who do not even know each other, but through social networks they meet to commit a crime, to fight each other. A new phenomenon born also of the rapidity with which young people and the very young now know, and can, organize themselves and to which adults – all – will have to respond with the same speed ».
The risks of the network
Alarming, and a source of reflection,thequadro traced by Lisa Di Berardino, Deputy Commissioner of the Postal and Communications Police of Milan. Compared to 2019, in the pre-Covi era, the cases that have seen, the very young victims of the network – and they range from child pornography to solicitation, to cyber-bullying – have increased by 77%: from more than 2 thousand cases a year to 4 thousand in 2020. And for the first time they also involved the age group from zero to nine. The number of guys who took porn videos or photos for themselves and then spread them over the Internet increased by 132%. With all the consequent risks of falling victim to blackmail. Unauthorized strangers have entered the virtual classrooms. Di Berardino’s invitation is that of greater vigilance, but also of the ability to say no (“… in the evening, at the age of nine, the Internet connection must be forbidden in the enclosure of one’s own room”). Accompanied, however, by greater attention to children and the ability to encourage self-esteem and resilience.
June 12, 2021 (change June 12, 2021 | 15:04)
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