The Covid-19 pandemic has a “hidden” impact, not recorded in the virus positivity bulletins or in intensive care admissions: worries and anxieties connected more or less directly to the virus, from the fear of contagion to work difficulties due to crisis, are hitting the mental health of the population hard. The #insiemeperlasalutementale campaign has just started to talk about it and above all to break down the wall of prejudice against patients, making them ask for help and not feel alone.
–
Growing discomfort
Estimates indicate that a difficult autumn is looming from the point of view of mental well-being, in which more than one in two people could suffer from mental disorders. “Before Covid-19 it was estimated that in 2030, that is in less than 10 years, diseases of the mind will overtake cardiovascular diseases, becoming the most widespread in the world: considering the enormous increase in cases in this period between pre and post lockdown , it is not excluded that this overtaking may even take place earlier, if it has not already happened, ”he explains Massimo di Giannantonio, president of the Italian Society of Psychiatry. “We have calculated that the mental health services will have 30 percent more patients, or 300,000 new cases that will add up to the 900,000 already treated by the structures; to this is added the always very low propensity for public investment in the field of mental health. Italy, with its 3.2 per cent, remains behind in Europe which has averages above 5 per cent: we have fewer doctors, fewer staff, fewer operators dedicated to this increasingly important sector of public health that today risks the default “.
–
Information campaign
Experts are therefore calling for investments and greater accessibility to mental health services, but also for more talk of mental illness so that patients are not ashamed to ask for help and do not feel alone. This is why the #insiemeperlasalutementale campaign has just started, with singer Noemi as testimonial: the goal, in view of the World Mental Health Day on 10 October, is to break down a virtual wall of stigma and prejudice through challenges designed for different social networks (the info to participate on the campaign website). “Among mental illnesses, depression is the leading cause of disability, growing in recent decades and even more so following the pandemic and its physical and economic consequences”, he explains Claudio Mencacci, president of the Italian Society of Neuropsychopharmacology (SINPF) and director of the Mental Health Department of the Fatebenefratelli-Sacco hospital in Milan. “For this reason it is more than ever necessary to raise awareness and information that reaches all health professionals, favoring early diagnosis and intervention especially at the level of general medicine, but above all the entire population, raising awareness in particular categories such as parents and teachers , families and environments at risk. Every initiative, every campaign, every awareness raising action is fundamental: every day is important to break down the wall of indifference ».
–
–
13 September 2020 (change 13 September 2020 | 13:24)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
– .
/nginx/o/2020/09/13/13343509t1hee91.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "The winners of the Clippers and Nuggets series will be determined in the seventh game – Basketball")
