By Jenna Yingling ’21
As society transitions out of lockdown and learns to adapt to the COVID-era, people are beginning to examine the lasting effects of the pandemic, generally focusing on physical health and the economy. Taking this as a call to action, vaccinations are now underway and struggling businesses continue to receive grants and other forms of monetary aid as they work through new protocols.
However, individual mental health has not been bouncing back in a similar way. More often than not, this issue is neglected or swept under the rug completely. After all, the nightly news so diligently displays the COVID death count and stock market statistics but falls short in informing the public on how many deaths by suicide have occurred over the course of the pandemic.
Realistically, the pandemic has instilled long-term effects on the mental health of individuals and overall access to mental healthcare.
“I think the pandemic has out a lot of strain and stress on everybody,” Teresa Weitz, family practice physician assistant, said. “Overall, people are unable to access their regular coping mechanisms. People are unable to get together with family members across the generations so that is decreasing their ability to let off steam and receive the normal comforts and support that one gets even as a healthy individual.”
In addition, people are concerned not only about their own health but the health of their loved ones as well. These fears are internalized, adding to the mental strain people are experiencing.
Those who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses before the pandemic have been negatively affected by the pandemic on an even greater scale than those only now beginning to feel the stress. In the initial weeks of the shutdown, patients were able to be seen at their usual doctor’s offices. Instead, offices replaced in-person visits with conferences through telemedicine.
“You do a visit ultimately over facetime,” Weitz explained. “Your healthcare provider is seeing you from a video perspective.”
However, as many have discovered over the course of the pandemic, attempting to recreate typical face-to-face experiences through technology can lead to ineffective conversation and uncomfortable feelings.
“I personally have had patients only able to receive individual counseling over Zoom or telemedicine, and I find that they’re having a hard time connecting with the counselor,” Weitz said. “They are feeling that lack of the personal touch.”
Additionally, those who can access their usual in-person therapy are struggling to schedule appointments due to the sudden demand for mental healthcare across the population.
“There are several of my patients that just simply can’t get appointments for months,” Weitz said. “And that’s posed a huge problem. We also have some critical patients that may be borderline suicidal, and we can’t get them quick appointments, so there have definitely been more phone calls to crisis intervention, and quite frankly, just calls directly to the emergency room to make sure that they’re stable. Yeah, it’s been a major issue.”
In turn, medical workers across the board feel incredible pressure to provide answers and solutions for the people under their care during these uncertain times. Doctors and nurses have been given few guidelines, so they do not always know the best way to aid their patients. The feeling of being unable to help their own patients has been mentally damaging for many health professionals.
“So you have a single mother with 3 kids that’s trying to educate them and work fulltime and you’re seeing that stress and you empathize with them but you can’t do anything for them, so it’s hard to not be able to help and not have any answers,” Weitz explained. “That’s been hard for me.”
Mental health disorders have always been complex and hard to spot, so it is unsurprising that they have been lost in the frenzy that the pandemic has caused. Nonetheless, preserving mental health must be prioritized as highly as physical health, so everyone can have the opportunity to heal, otherwise, communities across the nation will be forced to face the loss and devastation that can occur when mental health is not a priority.