Critical Thinking Assignment 3:

Covid-19 Influence on the Mentally

Ill and their Treatment Plans
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 Introduction
• Covid-19 pandemic came with numerous challenges to individuals, families,
the government and the world at large.
• The pandemic brought a total standstill across the globe. Governments came
in and tried their best to salvage their countries through setting up strict
Covid-19 guidelines that were meant to curb the virus by reducing the rate of
its spread.
• As all these were happening, mentally ill patients also experienced more
challenges in dealing with the outcome of the pandemic.
• This is because most of their daily schedules and routine were disrupted by
the pandemic. Restriction of movements further affected their treatment
plans.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• The pandemic caused a total disruption of the normal services offered
to mentally ill children.
• According to the World Health Organization, 93% of the countries
across the globe illustrated that the pandemic affected service delivery
to mentally ill patients (Amjed et al., 2019).
• The service disruption cut across all ages and types of mental
conditions.
• For instance there was a disruption on the delivery of services to the
vulnerable population and this population also included children and
teenagers.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• Older adults were also affected by an approximate rate of
70%. Pregnant and nursing women were also largely
affected.
• With the need for antenatal and postnatal care, these women
needed proper attention in terms of mental health counseling
but the pandemic affected their abilities to access this service.
• According to W.H.O 61% of women in this group could not
gain access to mental health counseling due to the pandemic
(Amjed et al., 2019).
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• Covid-19 pandemic increased the number of people developing mental
health conditions.
• As the pandemic came into place, many breadwinners in most families lost
their jobs. As a mechanism to curb the disease, people had to work from
home with reduced wages.
• Schools were shut down and children had to spent most of their times at
home. With all these parents became frustrated and some adults even sank
into depression.
• The inability to provide the basic needs for their families and children also
triggered the development of mental health conditions that needed attention
(Mahmoud, 2018).
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• With the same population of mental care providers and increasing
cases of mental issues across the population, the service delivery to
originally mentally ill patients was disrupted.
• This is because the medical care providers had to overstretch and
provide care to new cases of rising mental issues as well as to the
patients that they were dealing with before the pandemic (Jenkins,
2019).
• As a result the treatment patterns had to be adjusted so that at least
everyone managed to get the service.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• The consequences of Covid-19 alone and the virus itself triggered new
cases of mental health conditions.
• Isolation, lack of jobs, loss of loved ones due to the disease and the
fear of the unknown led people into drug abuse and substance use
(Mahmoud, 2018).
• There was an increase in the number of people who indulged in
alcohol use as a strategy to curb all these consequences of the
pandemic.
• The abuse of other drugs also increased with the same reasons as the
use of alcohol.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• The virus gave birth to mental health conditions.
• For instance Covid-19 patients faced neurological
complications such as stroke, insomnia and agitation.
• These complications are simply mental conditions that
needed to be attended to but with the numerous cases and
limited service care providers; these patients were treated for
Covid-19 ignoring the aspect of mental challenges that
accompanied the virus (Mahmoud, 2018).
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• Healthcare providers had to shift their courses of treatment from
physical encounters with patients to conducting mental care and
other forms of care through online platforms (Alsoqaih et al.,
2018).
• Most countries that had not adopted telemedicine and teletherapy
opted for this shift during the pandemic to ensure the availability
of services to mentally ill patients despite the limited movements
and social distancing protocols (Alsoqaih et al., 2018).
• The shift of course did not happen overnight.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• It was a process and it was during this process that patients with
mental conditions could not access medical services.
• Some could not understand why their healthcare providers opted for
teletherapy instead of the usual physical meetings (Alsoqaih et al.,
2018).
• This therefore point that the shift contributed to mentally ill patients
losing track of their treatment plans.
• It also took some time before they completely got used to the use of
online platforms for therapy.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• Like any medical service, mental health services and care are paid
for.
• With the massive losses of jobs and reduced income across people
caused by the pandemic, most people could not afford the access
of mental care (Alghadeer et al., 2018).
• Families could not afford to pay for the routine mental care
services of their patients.
• Some opted to skipping at least one therapy session in order to be
able to raise the funds needed for the next therapy.
 Critical Thinking Assignment 2
• Some patients completely missed out on their treatments due to
financial challenges as they could not afford to pay for services and
drugs as well (Alghadeer et al., 2018).
• This therefore worsened their mental conditions.
• Other family members who could not stand their family members
missing out on their routine check-ups also ended up becoming
mentally ill.
• In general, the pandemic affected sources of income which also
adversely affected their ability to pay for mental care services
(Alghadeer et al., 2018).
 Conclusion
• In conclusion, Covid-19 pandemic caused total disruption in the provision
of mental care services.
• The normal or usual routine mental illness treatment were also affected
since medical care providers were majorly trying to concentrate on the
rising cases of Covid-19 patients (Alghadeer et al., 2018).
• The pandemic overstretched medical care providers and most attention was
diverted towards the dealing with the cases of the pandemic with little
resources and attention given towards mental cases (Alghadeer et al., 2018).
• With the consequences of the pandemic, mental care was disrupted as
illustrated above.
 References
• Alghadeer, S. M., Alhossan, A. M, Al-Arifi, M. N., Alrabiah, Z. S., Ali, S. W., Babelghaith, S. D., & Altamimi,
M. A. (2018). Prevalence of mental disorders among patients attending primary health care centers in the capital
of Saudi Arabia. Neurosciences, 23(3), 238–243.
• Alsoqaih, M. I. Elbedour, S. Reed, G., Woodson, K., Ricks, E., & Merrick, J. (2018). School psychology: A case
study and needs assessment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Child & Adolescent Health, 11(1),
23–36.
• Amjed Abu-G., Clementi, M., Marton, S., Schwarzwald, H., Giwa, E., Hollier, L., & Chapman, S. (2019).
Behavioral health service utilization: Trends in utilization within a patient-centered medical home for low-
income children and women. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 8(12), 3983–3989.
Recommended
• Chapter 2 PowerPoint slides  SEU_HCM500_Module02_PPT_Ch02.pptx - Alternative Formats — Comparative
Health Systems
• Jenkins, R. (2019). Global mental health and sustainable development 2018. BJPsych International, 16(2), 34–37
• Mahmoud, M. A. (2018). Knowledge and awareness regarding mental health and barriers to seeking psychiatric
consultation in Saudi Arabia. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Health Care, 10(4), 109–116.