With the end of the U.S. pandemic’s emergency phase now in sight, experts are, nevertheless, awaiting a long-term impact on individuals’ mental health. Some people will resolve their feelings of anxiety and depression as they resume their normal routine, such as going back to work in an office setting, or reforming social connections. But then there are others who will face new mental health issues or those issues that already persist.
This burden, due to our country’s existing magnitude of despair and disruption, stands to put a greater strain on America’s already over-burdened mental health system. Susan Borja, the chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Dimensional Traumatic Stress Research Program, informs us, “Even a small increase in the rates of people with new or worsening mental illness is going to be a problem. And with the pandemic, it has been the entire country facing new stressors.”
According to recent survey data, experts have identified leading causes of the present increase in sleeping problems and alcohol and other substance misuse as:
1. Uncertainty and fear about the coronavirus itself
2. Job loss and housing and food insecurity
3. Juggling working from home while dealing with cooped-up kids
4. Grief and a loss of cohesion as a result of restrictions.
Andrew Joseph, reporter for statnews.com, asks the question: “What comes next?” He comments, “While fear lingers and recovery takes time, Covid-19 has become like a chronic stressor, one that has ebbed and flowed but hasn’t disappeared in the U.S. for over a year.” He continues, “It’s not just a health crisis either: The interventions instituted to slow the virus have resulted in massive upheavals in the economic and social fabric, a loss of financial security and emotional support.”
The psychological damage, like the virus itself, will not be shared equally. Researchers have stated that certain communities, already vulnerable to mental health problems (those facing violence in their homes, those living in poorer and close-spaced housing, and those feeling outcast as Black, Latino, Indigenous, and LGBTQ groups), will suffer the greatest. We are warned that mental health ramifications and potential for suicide risk elevations haven’t been seen in their full numbers yet. Other groups still grappling with chronic stress include health workers, caregivers, and kids kept out of school for more than a year with socioeconomic stress found in their homes, as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Unintentional injuries (that is, drug overdoses), suicide, and liver disease (typically from alcoholism) are now the first, second, and sixth leading causes of death for people ages 15 to 44 years old.”
Two Princeton economists, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, label these deaths as “deaths of despair” and link their incidence to increased happenings of economic forces that have made life more difficult for all types of workers and their families, especially (noted by them) among the white middle class.
Telemedicine became a more common option during the pandemic and now can expand to treat underserved areas in our country. Joseph finalizes with this statement: “The 1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill…also included funding for treating mental health and substance use disorders, school-based mental health programs, and supporting the mental health workforce.” But clinicians warn us in their statement: “It’s not enough.”
A psychiatrist at Washington University, St. Louis, Jessi Gold, agrees.
“We are incapable of serving this entire population.” She explains, “We’ve never had a good system, and we’re going to have a system that’s only going to become more broken with this need.”
