Mental Health and COVID – 19 Pandemic

Introduction

The composite term ‘mental health and psychosocial support’ (MHPSS) is used in the Inter
Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines for MHPSS in Emergency Settings to describe
‘any type of local or outside support that aims to protect or promote psychosocial well-being
and/or prevent or treat mental health condition’. The global humanitarian system uses the term
MHPSS to unite a broad range of actors responding to emergencies such as the COVID-19
outbreak, including those working with biological approaches and sociocultural approaches in
health, social, education and community settings, as well as to ‘underscore the need for diverse,
complementary approaches in providing appropriate support’.1
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of people around the world.2 The
Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support of the Inter-Agency Standing
Committee of the United Nations recommends that the core principles of mental health support
during an emergency are "do no harm, promote human rights and equality, use participatory
approaches, build on existing resources and capacities, adopt multi-layered interventions and
work with integrated support systems." 3 COVID-19 is affecting people's social connectedness,
their trust in people and institutions, their jobs and incomes, as well as imposing a huge toll in
terms of anxiety and worry.4 COVID-19 also adds to the complexity of substance use
disorders (SUDs) as it disproportionately affects people with SUD due to accumulated social,
economic, and health inequities.

Causes of Mental Health issues during COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused stress, anxiety and worry for many individuals, arising both
from the disease itself and from response measures such as social distancing. Common causes of
psychological stress during pandemics include, fear of falling ill and dying, avoiding health care due
to fear of being infected while in care, fear of losing work and livelihoods, fear of being socially
excluded, fear of being placed in quarantine, feeling of powerlessness in protecting oneself and
loved ones, fear of being separated from loved ones and caregivers, refusal to care for vulnerable
individuals due to fear of infection, feelings of helplessness, lack of self-esteem to do anything in

1
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in
Emergency Settings. IASC: Geneva, 2007
2
Coping with Stress, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-
ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html
3
Addressing mental health and psychosocial aspect of COVID-19 outbreak, Inter-Agency Standing Committee,
Published on: February 2020,
https://web.archive.org/web/20200331002938/https://www.mhinnovation.net/sites/default/files/downloads/res
ource/IASC%20Interim%20Briefing%20Note%20on%20COVID-19%20Outbreak%20Readiness%20and%20Response
%20Operations%20-%20MHPSS.pdf
4
COVID-19: Protecting people and Societies, Tackling coronavirus (COVID-19) contributing to a global effort, OECD,
https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=126_126985-nv145m3l96&title=COVID-19-Protecting-people-and-
societies
daily life, boredom, loneliness, and depression due to being isolated, and fear of re-living the
experience of a previous pandemic.[2]
In addition to these problems, COVID-19 can cause additional psychological responses, such as,
risk of being infected when the transmission mode of COVID-19 is not 100% clear, common
symptoms of other health problems being mistaken for COVID-19, increased worry about children
being at home alone (during school shutdowns, etc.) while parents have to be at work, and risk of
deterioration of physical and mental health of vulnerable individuals if care support is not in place. [2]
Frontline workers, such as doctors and nurses may experience additional mental health
problems. Stigmatization towards working with COVID-19 patients, stress from using
strict biosecurity measures (such as physical strain of protective equipment, need for constant
awareness and vigilance, strict procedures to follow, preventing autonomy, physical isolation making
it difficult to provide comfort to the sick), higher demands in the work setting, reduced capacity to use
social support due to physical distancing and social stigma, insufficient capacity to give self-care,
insufficient knowledge about the long-term exposure to individuals infected with COVID-19, and fear
that they could pass infection to their loved ones can put frontline workers in additional stress. [2][5][6]
Fear, anger and hopelessness were the most frequent traumatic emotional responses in the general
public during the first COVID-19 outbreak in the Czech Republic. The four most frequent categories
of fear were determined: fear of the negative impact on household finances, fear of the negative
impact on the household finances of significant others, fear of the unavailability of health care, and
fear of an insufficient food supply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_health_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic