Mental health under duress from coronavirus; policy slow to respond
Prolonged stay-at-home orders have raised concerns over mental well-being. There’s been little done to abate worries.
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56% of adults have experienced some additional strain on their mental health because of the coronavirus crisis, according to a recent Kaiser health poll, and 65% of those who have lost their income.
Disruption of routines and being sheltered in a potentially harmful location are among many factors contributing to heightened distress. Problems manifest in various outlets: trouble sleeping or eating; an increased reliance on drugs and alcohol. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (S.A.M.H.S.A.) national disaster distress hotline saw a 1,000% increase in April. And the United Nations warned about the global trend of increased anxiety, sorrow and other stressors in a 17-page report on the pandemic’s secondary effects.
Medical workers take toll of trauma
The burgeoning issue of mental health awareness during a lethal public health crisis emerged in national headlines with the recent suicides of two New York frontline workers. Lorna Breen, an emergency response doctor with no reported history of mental illness, and John Mondello, an emergency medical technician from the Bronx, both died in late April while working through the carnage of the virus.
An estimated 64% of frontline workers have reported difficulty dealing with their own mental health since the beginning of the pandemic, the same Kaiser poll found.
Students feel unsupported through Zoom
About 80% of college students polled said the pandemic has worsened their mental health, with 20% saying quarantine has significantly detracted from their mental well-being, in an April survey of 2,000 college students.
Cancellation of socially interactive activities, isolation from peers and mentors and exposure to financial hardships within households have contributed to a decline in students’ outlooks. Some students have also reported difficulty remaining engaged with their assigned coursework because focusing is more difficult without interpersonal interaction.
Case study: New Jersey’s mental wellness charge
To alleviate student stress, Montclair State University in New Jersey has extended their counseling services to reach students online and over the phone. Experts there recognized the heightened stress of the pandemic and anticipate long-lasting impacts after it subsides.
The president of New Jersey behavioral health care provider Carrier Clinic, Donald Parker, expects an inverse relationship between diminished COVID-19 cases and increased patients troubled with effects on their mental health. Parker estimated the Clinic has seen a 25% rise in patients since the beginning of quarantine; his concerns lie in the potential mounted of homicide, suicide and overdoses.
New Jersey’s Human Services department received over $2.8 million in funding from S.A.M.H.S.A. and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) for behavioral health services. Governed under the Mental Health and Addiction Services Division, it will be used to expand counseling and socially distant safe spaces like the “NJMentalHealthCares” hotline. The hotline received more than double the calls in April than it did in January.
F.E.M.A. granted just under $900 thousand to establish the New Jersey Hope and Healing Crisis Counseling Program.
New Jersey was included in an initial grant by F.E.M.A. to six states — alongside California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Washington — before they added 34 states and the District of Columbia under the Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training program. F.E.M.A. has been utilized before for natural and man-made disasters; funding was allotted to Tennessee in April in wake of tornadoes that took the lives of 26 people, injured 300 and caused over a billion dollars in damages.
Through the CARES Act, S.A.M.H.S.A. will also deliver $110 million over 16 months years to increase access to mental health and substance abuse: States are eligible to apply for $2 million of such aid, tribes and territories can collect up to $500,000.
In New Jersey, the $2 million in S.A.M.H.S.A. funding goes to Rutgers University’s department of Behavioral Health Care in an effort to reach over 2,500 New Jersians through telecommunication treatment and support. It will also go into creating a statewide peer recovery support group program directed by the Human Services and Children and Families departments.
And Catholic Charities, the Family Services Bureau of Newark and the Mental Health Association of New Jersey will partner with the state’s Human Services department to expand on the state’s existing mental health outreach. New services include more crisis counselors, increased social distancing task forces and easier access to information and resources.
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