MENTAL HEALTH
The Other Pandemic
Whose victims go uncounted in Covid 19 statistics
As the world ventures toward immunity and normalcy or a reasonable facsimile thereof, we are frequently hit with statistical milestones. Numbers of cases, doses, Covid deaths, outbreaks and vaccines scroll across our TVs and computer screens. From this we are to brace for prolonged restrictions or entertain hopes of a return to social interaction.
There is much political finger pointing in ever country in an attempt to score points. We hear that incumbent politicians and parties have dropped the ball, endangering lives which can only be saved by voting in the opposition candidate. Public Health authorities implore us to stay home and avoid non-essential social contact.
What isn’t being tabulated publicly is the cumulative effect on our mental health. As surely as there were those in our families, communities and workplaces who struggled in normal times, we don’t need a degree in psychiatry to know that our most vulnerable have escalated mental health risk in this pandemic.
Little by little, case by case, sector by sector, country by country, stories are coming forth about those for whom the isolation became too much to go on living. It is most distressing to hear of children and teens exhibiting signs of…
