The COVID-19 Mental Health Crisis

As we continue to deal with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to acknowledge the detrimental effect that it is having on mental health at the individual, societal and public health levels. We are currently experiencing an unprecedented uptick in mental health service needs. Mental health providers are challenged to provide timely and effective services meet the challenges of that this mental health crisis.

?This article provides a summary of the harm to the general population and several vulnerable groups documented by a recent study (Tsamakis, et al., 2021). It provides the findings of an international study demonstrating how meaning-centered treatment strategies are needed to meet today’s mental health crisis (Eisenbeck, et al., 2021). And finally, a resource is provided to assist practitioners to update their practice quickly and effectively.

The General Population

Distress, uncertainty, and unpredictability due to a lack of an endpoint of the pandemic, with no treatment in sight, led to the emergence of several mental health issues including panic, anxiety, and depression.?

Repeated media images of severely ill people, dead bodies, and coffins, and the knowledge that people may not be able to say goodbye to their dying loved ones, magnified social distress.?

Addictive behaviors, such as alcohol, drug, online gambling, and tobacco abuse increased.?Domestic violence and sexual abuse increased with strict quarantine measures, economic crisis, and unemployment.

The Elderly

Since during the COVID-19 pandemic mental health care shifted to telehealth, this age group was disproportionally affected due to a lack of technical availability and/or competence.????????????????????????

Rather disturbingly, media portrayed COVID-19 as a disease of the elderly leading to social stigma, negative stereotyping, and age-based discrimination that increased isolation and caused additional distress to themselves and to their family and caregivers.?

Additionally, hospital stays in intensive care units (ICU’s) were associated with cognitive impairment and poor mental health outcomes.

Children, Adolescents & Young People

Children were exposed to chronic stress conditions, including forced isolation from peers, shelter at home mandates, and worries about health and financial status of their families.?

Young adults were susceptible to mental health symptoms due to stressors such as school and university closures, loss of routine, and reduced economic opportunities. Loneliness became a predictor of future mental health problems as children who had experienced quarantine were five times more likely to require mental health services and experienced higher levels of posttraumatic stress.

Health Care Professionals

Extreme workloads, shortages of protective equipment, lack of training, fear of becoming infected or of spreading infection to relatives, witnessing patients’ deaths, separation from families and stigmatization by their communities led to high rates of anxiety, depression, insomnia, distress, somatization, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and an increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Those With Pre-Existing Mental Health Conditions

This population became extremely vulnerable to relapsing during the pandemic.?There was a substantial increase in psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety, depression, panic, delirium, psychosis, and suicidality. At a time when this population was suffering more distress and clinical needs, they experienced significant reductions in the availability of care.?Also, premature discharge from psychiatric units led to relapse, suicidal behavior, anxiety, depression, posttraumatic incidents, and insomnia.

Those Infected With COVID-19

Physical isolation from family members or loved ones during quarantine or hospital stays produced psychological instability among those infected with COVID-19.?Those admitted to ICU’s often experienced post-intensive-care syndrome which manifests with cognitive, psychological, and neurological symptoms.?They were also at higher risk for depression.?

Based on prior experiences with SARS-CoV-1 infection, depression rates were higher 1 month and 1 year after recovery.?We may anticipate a huge increase of patients suffering from depression because of COVID-19 infection.

The Homeless

The homeless were disproportionately impacted with both medical and psychological needs.?They most often live in environments that are conducive to a disease epidemics.?Many of them suffer from chronic mental and physical conditions, engage in high rates of substance abuse, and have less access to health care.?These factors caused high levels of stress that exacerbated existing mental health conditions and/or created new ones.

Meeting The Challenge

New challenges require new remedies.?A different approach.?A world-wide study, with 12,243 participants, conducted in 30 countries, on six continents, studied depression, stress, anxiety and stressful COVID-19 conditions (Eisenbeck, et al., 2021).?

“Results indicated that meaning-centered coping was strongly associated with diminished symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression.?Moreover, it moderated various relationships between vulnerability factors and markers of psychological distress, especially in the case of depression. These findings call for attention to meaning-centered coping approaches in the context of hardship, such as the current COVID-19 health crisis.” (p.1)

Meaning-Centered Therapy

Meaning-centered psychotherapy is treatment strategy based on Viktor Frankl’s (1905-1997) work which he called “Logotherapy” or “meaning” therapy. It focuses on the clinical problems of individuals and places a special emphasis on difficulties associated with meaninglessness. Its ultimate goal is helping an individual to discover the meaning of their life.?

During the last two decades meaning-centered therapy has developed a strong framework of knowledge capable of meeting the needs of today’s mental health crisis.?The research has shown its efficacy in treating a host of disorders including depression, substance use disorders, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, PTSD, narcissistic personality disorders, borderline personality disorders, avoidant personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, dependent personality disorders, and histrionic personality disorders.?

Furthermore, logotherapy treatments have been shown to enhance psychological adjustment associated with terminal illnesses, disabilities, grief, and caregiving in rehabilitation.?It is a promising intervention alleviating suffering and helping clients to find meaning.

Provider Training

To address the critical COVID-19 mental health needs, the Therapy Training Institute has created an online certificate course to address the need to add meaning-centered strategies to current therapies.?This certification will allow providers to use their current treatments with updated, evidence-based strategies demonstrated to address the specific clinical needs identified by the worldwide clinical study (Eisenbeck, et al., 2021).

This self-paced course will allow practitioners to update their practice in as little as seven days.?It is designed for those practicing in clinics, agencies, and privately. Details are available at Counseling in the Post COVID-19 Era.