There has been a surge in the number of children using insurers’ mental health support services during the pandemic.
Health & Protection contacted insurers and service providers about the figures as part of this Children’s Mental Health Week.
Royal London revealed it has seen a 44% increase in the number of children needing support from its Helping Hand service in 2021 when compared to 2020.
The mutual said overall support for mental health issues increased by almost three times in 2021 on 2020 and support for children who had experienced bereavement in 2020 was double that of previous years.
Jennifer Gilchrist, protection specialist at Royal London, told Health & Protection such value added services allow customers to use them without making a claim.
“What you’ve got is parents coming and asking for support and this can be at any point. It can be minutes after you’ve taken a policy out or it can be 10 years down the line, but it really is trying to help support a family if there has been a crisis,” she said.
Children’s books
Gilchrist cited the example of where a parent has received a cancer diagnosis as where these value added services can really come into their own.
“We have cases where one of the parents has been diagnosed with cancer and RedArc, which supports our Helping Hand service, have got books depending on the children’s age,” she continued.
“It’s telling the children a story about one of their parents having cancer and it’s trying to help the parent tell the children something’s going on and it’s done in such a lovely way that it’s trying to protect the child’s mental health and cope with situations that are thrown up in family life on a day to day basis.”
Steady increase
Similarly, Sue Helmont, marketing director at AIG Life, revealed the provider has seen a steady increase in demand for appointments with mental health experts through its Smart Health service during the pandemic.
Helmont revealed the number more than doubled to 1,525 people in 2021 compared with 669 people in 2020, while 4% of the individuals helped last year were children and young people under the age of 18 and almost three-quarters of these (72%) were aged 12-17.
Helmont added that Teladoc Health UK and psychologists behind Smart Health’s mental health service have told them that children and young people have been greatly affected by the pandemic.
“At a crucial developmental period in their lives, they’ve lacked stability and the interaction with their peers that would allow them to develop a sense of self within their communities,” she said.
“Teladoc’s experience is that children have felt confused or unanchored by not attending school in-person, that they were worried about the health of their families or have felt the mental impact of their parent’s stress.
“It’s so sad to hear that young people have been impacted hard by the pandemic, though its great to know some parents found a way to help their children grow their resilience and get much-needed support.”
Power of remote support
Helmont noted that remote healthcare support lends itself really well to mental health consultations.
“It’s less intrusive when there’s no commuting to a place of face-to-face therapy. That’s good for kids in particular because it allows them to stay at home and take comfort from familiar surroundings,” she continued.
“Talking to someone remotely can also accelerate both the process and benefits for the person seeking help. In our experience, it can help bridge the gap between a children and adolescent mental health services referral and various assessments.”
Legal & General revealed that anecdotally it has also seen an increase in the number of children using its wellbeing support service for mental health issues, such as panic disorders, stress, anxiety and mood changes.
It noted children of the policyholder accounted for around a third (29%) of the mental health cases it supported in 2021.
Canada Life said it had not seen any meaningful increase in the take-up of children’s mental health support through its WeCare service thus far, but there was an opportunity for employers to highlight the valuable benefit of virtual services to the immediate family whether insured or not.
