Mental Health Supports During Covid

26 May 2020 -

In late March, I started hearing the argument that more people may die of suicide if the economy is shut down for too long. I had an initial reaction to dismiss this argument as political maneuvering to excuse a lack of coherent response to the pandemic. However, over the next week, I had some cognitive dissonance because I do believe that this pandemic is having a big impact on mental health and I empathize with anyone who struggles with suicidal ideation regardless of the origin of those thoughts. And, while I do believe that there are some that are pushing this argument for political gain or distraction, I think it is more important to discuss the core reasons why I think this argument is dangerous instead of dismissing it as political ideology that I disagree with.

First, treatments for mental health are well researched with multiple approaches available and decades of study on the effectiveness of these approaches. Clearly, with about 50,000 Americans per year dying by suicide, there is a long way to go in improving these techniques and in increasing access to everyone that needs it. But, the pathway to treat mental health struggles is a lot clearer than the complex response needed to manage a pandemic caused by a virus that is impacting people in so many different ways. I understand the call to return to normalcy as a way to try to minimize the mental health crisis; but, I think it would be more effective if we were working on ways to better leverage the mental health supports that we have in the toolbelt.

There seems to be an assumption that any mental health crisis during this pandemic is caused by jobs lost to government imposed regulations or a sense of isolation due to social distancing requirements. To me, this ignores the very real and significant traumas that are being endured by healthcare workers and those that are being put at risk to keep our grocery stores and food processing systems running. There are numerous examples of these frontline workers suiciding during the crisis. However, I will not try to make an argument with anecdotes. Ignoring the science and history of pandemics to the point that we overwhelm this critical sector of our community with a new wave of hospital visits and panic buying is not the way we should be thanking these heroes for their service.

A lack of resilience in the face of adversity is a large contributing factor to the current mental health crisis. And sending everyone back to work would be a quick way to heal the symptom to a deeper problem. Keeping people busy at work is an easy way to push the issue down the line but not affect the cause. The loss of agency for someone who is worried about how they will feed their family is real; but, the anger at government officials who are trying to limit the spread of disease is a distraction from solutions that will be needed to get through this crisis. I think that building the needed resilience comes from creating hope in the power of working together to find new ways to make sure everyone is fed and people don’t lose their homes. Pushing everyone back to work is only one of many ways to increase access to and limit loss of food and shelter.

I hope that we can all agree that people returning to their jobs is just one of many ways we could be working on a solution to this problem. I hope that everyone can contribute by staying connected with their friends and family they are most worried about, by doing what they can to ensure that those around them are aware of the professional support available to them, and by limiting access to any means for someone to hurt themselves. For anyone who is making the argument to return to the status quo as a way to limit suidice, if you aren’t also doing the things I listed above, then I will believe that you are making a political argument that isn’t rooted in the ultimate goal of saving the lives of as many people as possible. And, I’m not trying to tell you that you are wrong for advocating for a solution you believe in. I’m hoping to provide a different perspective that can hopefully nudge us all in the direction of working together to limit the impacts of this pandemic and away from the direction of giving up too quickly.