Goldie Hawn says COVID mandate are hurting the ‘mental health’ of US kids

Actress Goldie Hawn spoke out about how the COVID pandemic is affecting the mental health of children and what can be done to better manage the nationwide impact.

Hawn, 76, noted that the pandemic was hurting the ‘mental health’ of children who have no control over what is going on in the world.

The Oscar-winning actress’s statements come amid rising arguments over mask mandates for children as 15 states have still imposed it in US schools. 

‘We’re dealing right now with a mental illness pandemic,’ Hawn told Fox & Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade, Will Cain and Carley Shimkus on Friday.

‘Mental illness is something that can actually last…it’s very, very dangerous. If we don’t look at it and know what and how to handle it, then we’re not going to win this battle with kids.’

Hawn helps run the non-profit organization MindUp, which was started in 2003, as a means to adhere to the mental health needs of children.

Hawn has long been a mental health advocate for children and helped to create MindUp in 2003

Hawn’s statements comes amid the ongoing argument of mask mandates in schools as 15 states still require students to wear them

In order to help children navigate the pandemic era, Hawn advised on how to manage their stress and emotions during this difficult time.

‘We can start looking at how we are putting preventative social and emotional programs,’ she said. ‘We are dealing with a mental illness pandemic.’

She also noted how children’s mental health had been affected by a lack of control over a situation they may not know how to manage.

‘If we don’t know how to handle it we are not going to win this battle for children.’

Hawn, who is neutral on the subject of mask mandates, said that even parents are having difficulty navigating the situation as well.

‘Whether it’s masks, whether it’s any of the various things that are going on today in the world, it’s very, very scary,’ Hawn also told the network. ‘I think that what we’ve got to do is start focusing in on our next generation,” she urged.

‘We have to make our future and have to make our children strong and fit and be able to connect to each other,’ she added.

Hawn spoke to Fox and Friends hosts Brian Kilmeade, Will Cain and Carley Shimkus on Friday

‘We’re dealing right now with a mental illness pandemic,’ Hawn told the network

In order to properly address the subjects of mask to children, Hawn also offered advice on how to relay COVID-based information to them.

‘I think there is a way of conscious shifting in the way we report, the way we talk and the way we share.’

She continued to urge the need for mental health programs to be implemented in schools to help children better understand and acclimate to the ways of a world driven by an ‘invisible enemy.’    

In addition to the effects of the pandemic, she also noted the importance of the effects of social media on a child’s brain as the attempted suicide for young females has increased by 50 percent.   

‘The bottom line is MindUP or any of these programs that are mental health are preventative programs should be in schools, not one day a week, every day — should be part of their classroom, part of their learning,’ she said.

‘Why do we ask kids to learn and don’t teach them about their brain?’

MindUp was created in 2003 to help with the mental health needs of children 

Hawn’s televised appearance comes after she published a USA Today article on her personal experiences with mental health as a child and how other generations have navigated traumatic historical events. 

‘We all know how magical a child’s imagination can be – the wonderful worlds they create in their minds,’ she wrote in the January op-ed.

‘But there’s a flip side to the joyful creativity that can turn a big cardboard box into a spaceship.

‘A child’s mind exposed to real-world fear, without the ability to properly process it, can go down dark passages leading to nothing less than existential dread.’