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Protecting the Global Mental Health of Forcibly Displaced Children From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Forcibly displaced children and families are among the most vulnerable groups in the world, now with an unprecedented 30 million children displaced by conflict and a peak of 19 million children internally displaced. Public health crises, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic, highlight the preexisting refugee crisis, placing them at greater mental health risk. Although children are not the highest risk cohort to suffer serious illness from COVID-19, pandemicrelated policies, health precautions, and psychosocial stressors are potentially damaging for vulnerable children and families such as forcibly displaced youth. Basic public health measures, such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and self-isolation, are difficult to implement in camps, settlements, and homes because of overcrowded living situations, poor access to basic sanitation, and lack of access to health services, leaving displaced children at risk for contracting disease. Many forcibly displaced families are understandably distrusting of government requests for public health measures because they are fleeing governments that are the cause of violence and armed conflict. These psychosocial stressors can lead to a worsening of mental health, especially when combined with a history of potentially traumatic events that cause forced migration. In this article, we describe the synergistic impact of government policy responses and psychosocial stress on the mental health of forcibly displaced children and families and recommend risk mitigation strategies to improve safety, psychosocial environments, and mental health for this populations. The term “displaced” will be used for reader ease, with definitions of forcibly displaced persons in Table 1.