A Post-Covid Mental Health Crisis on the Horizon?
“With this Covid pandemic, with bigger magnitude - almost the whole world is affected - that means mass trauma, which is beyond proportion. Even bigger than what the world experienced after the Second World War.”
At the bi-weekly press conference of the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 5 2021, I asked whether respective governments needed to prioritize mental health in their responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. I stated that it seemed to me that many people are nearing the “end of the rope of hope” as economies fold, job losses mount and people continue to grappled with endless lockdowns.
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, said everybody needs to recognize the “incredible toll” that the [pandemic has taken on every single individual. “There needs to be a lot more emphasis by governments, by communities, by families, by individuals to look after our well-being.”
WHO Executive Director, Dr. Mike Ryan, said that the time has passed for call for the mental health impact to be measured - rather that entities need to start doing something about it. “I think there is a point where it just becomes unethical to continue to call something out as an issue but not actually focus on solutions for people and communities….This has been a ‘Cinderella area’ in public health for far too long, and certainly in the work we do in humanitarian settings. Mental health and psychosocial support is a huge part of humanitarian intervention.
“If individuals and communities are not physically and mentally healthy, it is very difficult to absorb the strain and stress of an epidemic. It is very difficult to sustain behaviours that stop the epidemic.
“There’s one thing this virus seems to love and that’s despondency and incapacitation of our ability or willingness to stop the virus. And I sometimes wonder whether it is that impact that is the most profound.
“When it come to recovery plans…the mental health and psychosocial support to individuals ad communities must be central to all recovery plans and it must be costed into those plans.”
WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the trauma from the Covid-19 pandemic might even surpass that from the Second World War.
“With this Covid pandemic, with bigger magnitude - almost the whole world is affected - that means mass trauma, which is beyond proportion. Even bigger than what the world experienced after the Second World War. And when there is mass trauma it affects communities for many years to come….countries have to see it as such and prepare for that.”
On Monday, Ryan said, due to practical and ethical considerations, the so-called vaccine passports for Covid-19 shouldn’t be mandated for international travel. He cited as one reason that the coronavirus vaccines are not yet available globally.
“Vaccination is just not available enough around the world and is not available certainly on an equitable basis,” Ryan said.