Opinion | Separating children with Covid-19 from parents is neither safe nor necessary to curb infection

Name: Hong Kong parents rush to get kids vaccinated as daily Covid-19 cases rise
Uploaded: 2022-03-03T19:30:31.000Z
Duration: 4 min 6 s
Description: Hong Kong parents rush to get kids vaccinated as daily Covid-19 cases rise

Isolating infected children puts medical well-being before mental health, ignores the long-term trauma of separation and deters families from seeking treatment in the first place

Hospitals must treat parents and guardians as essential care providers and offer rapid testing to enable them to stay with children

Reading Time:3 minutes

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A man and child wait at a temporary treatment area outside a hospital on February 18. Since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong has maintained a policy of isolating and hospitalising all positive cases, regardless of age, leading to fears of family separation. Photo: AP

Maxine CheungandOdile Thiang

Published: 3:30am, 4 Mar 2022

Hospitalisation is a stressful experience for children and their families. Young children hospitalised without their parents or carers have reported feeling lonely, worried and as if they were being punished. Studies on children who have undergone isolated quarantines in previous pandemics found that up to 30 per cent met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Not being able to accompany a child to hospital also leaves parents emotionally distressed, which can subsequently impact their child.

If handled properly, a hospital stay for a young child can eventually become a distant memory as they grow older. However, if mishandled, it can become a traumatic childhood experience that significantly increases the risk of developing mental health problems in later life. While infection control measures are necessary during a pandemic, these measures should not be at the expense of children’s psychological and developmental well-being.

04:06

Hong Kong parents rush to get kids vaccinated as daily Covid-19 cases rise

Health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is not merely the absence of disease but a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Furthermore, Hong Kong is a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen scores of children across the city be separated from their primary caregivers during hospitalisation.

The recent string of cases of child separation during treatment at public hospitals has brought to light the strict “no-visitor” policy in Hong Kong’s paediatric units.

It begs an explanation as to why child-carer bonding – crucial for healthy development, and even more so during times of ailment and stress – is the first need to be sacrificed when devising and implementing infection control measures.

Local residents may feel the need to comply with hospital regulations to avoid appearing “selfish” and to ensure care for their children. However, this does not mean they are comfortable with such measures. According to a local study, Chinese parents view the need to accompany a hospitalised child as an unconditional aspect of parenting and wish to participate in their child’s care.

In recent weeks, fears about children being separated from parents or guardians have been voiced in various English and Chinese social media groups, leading to another alarming situation: carers are avoiding seeking medical help for their children. Instead, they are turning to each other for advice on how to manage their child’s illness. Clearly, there is an urgent need to incentivise families to seek help and prevent delays in treatment.

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