If this pandemic has had a silver lining, it’s the fact that many more people are now aware of the importance of mental health. Unfortunately, this is in part due to the pandemic’s harrowing effect on people’s mental wellbeing. Just last month, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that young people were facing a mental health crisis. Many therapists have described the uptick in reported mental health concerns across the country as a “second pandemic.”
“COVID-19 has shown people that mental health is real, mental health can be severe, mental health can be difficult to treat, and mental health resources may be difficult to access,” Candice Tate, MD, MBA, medical director at Magellan Healthcare, told Verywell.
The pandemic was unexpected, and the world did not have enough time to prepare for these abrupt changes, Tate added.
National surveys have shown that more than 28% of adults in the U.S. reported having anxiety in the last year and more than 22% reported symptoms of depression. The locations hit hardest by the pandemic also saw the biggest toll on mental health.
This is especially true for people directly working on the frontlines like healthcare workers. One study found that in the U.S., more than 80% of medical staff survey responders had depression symptoms and almost 25% noted they had been thinking about suicide or self-harm. Nearly 50% of medical staff surveyed also said that the pandemic had somewhat or significantly reduced their chances of continuing their work in this field.
This increased awareness has pushed institutions—from schools to the workplace—to start taking the problem seriously by facilitating conversations around the topic. But is this willingness to accept mental health conditions here to stay? Verywell asked experts to weigh in. Many are hopeful that this newfound awareness will guide us in a positive direction for the future.
Read more at VerywellHealth.com.
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