Mental health and social protection of children during times of crisis: The case of the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Children and adolescents have been silent victims during global crisis periods. In recent decades, a worldwide discussion has been developed to include health, education, social protection, housing, food, healthy coexistence, and participation, among others, as rights on a global agenda and consolidate children's and adolescents' rights. The world is still experiencing the COVID-19 outbreak, which has been considered one of the greatest crises of humanity, with repercussions throughout the complex of social life. Children and adolescents seem to be most affected by the synergistic effects of this pandemic, with evidence of increased mental health problems, abuse, violence, and other forms of violation of their rights. Objective: This article discusses care strategies based on articulated and coordinated actions between social protection systems that include mental health services. Method: A narrative review of the literature on the Scopus platform was carried out during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. At that time, many organizations pointed out the impact of the pandemic on children's mental health and the challenges for social protection systems. Therefore, we sought to capture this moment through a narrative literature review to identify the experiences of other health crises and what could be done at that moment. From this review, we drew analytical categories to develop a recommendation guide that can be used to improve social protection systems for children and adolescents. Results: The analyses suggested that the protection systems must develop different social policies and care plans for children and adolescents during the humanitarian crisis that must include mental health actions and guarantee their rights. Conclusion: Based on our reflections, we developed a guide of recommendations that governments could adopt to improve their response to children during the post-pandemic future or in other times of crisis.