The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced the creation of a High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19 for the Americas, motivated mainly by its concern about the effects of the pandemic on mental health.
One of the first objectives of this commission is to prepare a report with recommendations and guidelines by the end of 2022, compiling the most recent scientific evidence on the effects of the pandemic on mental health and seeking to urgently guide governments and health services.
PAHO had already released a study reported by SciDev.Net in 2021 in which the increase in cases of depression and anxiety due to the pandemic stood out. In the research, the authors recommended strengthening mental health services, offering psychosocial support for all and, in particular, for people in situations of social vulnerability.
According to Paulo Menezes, a member of the Commission and a professor at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, the pandemic may have exacerbated previous conditions, such as economic crises, worsening the mental health of thousands of people.
Menezes says that there is a lack of objective and recent data in Latin America on mental health, an old difficulty resulting from the low investment of governments in the area even before the pandemic. The lack of data can be a challenge for the work of the Commission, mainly due to the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the countries of the region.
“Mental health has been gaining importance in rich countries, with a growing number of studies. In low- and middle-income countries there are more studies and official data, but it is far from what would be necessary to guide public policies and improve people’s quality of life”, she warns.
Populations at higher risk
According to Menezes, women, children, people in a vulnerable economic situation, as well as the black and indigenous population, are those who require more attention.
His statement is in line with recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which pointed out that age (younger), female gender and pre-existing health conditions are risk factors for worsening mental health during the pandemic.
In addition, burnout in health professionals, loneliness, and a positive COVID-19 test were situations that increased the risk of suicidal thoughts. Young people, in particular, were the most prone to this.
A study from early 2022 with health professionals also warns that Latin America has high rates of depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation and psychological distress among these workers due to the pandemic. Chile, Bolivia and Colombia were the most critical countries.
Added to this is the shortage of mental health professionals, which overloads the staff working in the sector.
Learn from the crisis to improve services
In interview with SciDev.Net, the psychologist Thiago Trapé evaluated the PAHO initiative positively. Doctor in Collective Health, Trapé coordinates the project “A CASA” (“The house”, in Spanish), a space for community health agents and combat endemic diseases, who worked on the front line of the pandemic in Brazil.
“Establishing main objectives can be an induction vector for public and private managers to expand psychosocial care services. It is also important to work from macro-political structures to mental health practices”, she says.
Mental health “cannot be restricted solely to the absence of disease or focused on symptoms. We need psychoeducational actions, leisure techniques and other practices that are not only clinical and that have a direct impact on well-being and quality of life”.
Thiago Trape, psychologist
According to Trapé, with regard to health professionals, when the symptoms of mental disorders increase, sick leave and job rotation are felt immediately. Public policies need, therefore, to care for those who care.
“The great crises, historically, have catalyzed innovations and new proposals. I trust that mental health is the new wave. It cannot be restricted solely to the absence of disease or focus on symptoms. We need psychoeducational actions, leisure techniques and other practices that are not only clinical and that have a direct impact on well-being and quality of life”, he assesses.
Trapé’s opinion is in line with that of Menezes, for whom it is necessary to provide technologies that expand mental health care, such as teleconsultations and the use of applications.
The amount of work ahead may face, in the words of Menezes, some obstacles, such as stigma, the resistance of people to seek help and accept treatment, as well as the political will of some countries. For example, he compared Brazil, and its denialist government, to Costa Rica, whose vice president, Epsy Campbell Barr, heads the new PAHO Commission.
Documents and guidelines on mental health are shared on the Commission’s website.
–
