Since March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a direct impact on the mental health of the world population. The stress of confinement, fear and the loss of loved ones has increased the rates of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. From Latin America to Europe, there are multiple stories of people who have suffered psychologically due to Covid-19.
SJ * thought that the pandemic would never reach Peru. But when he returned to the country, after a season in Europe, he realized that the virus had crossed the borders of the Old Continent. It was September 2020 when he set foot in his native nation, where he encountered total confinement and widespread hysteria due to fear of Covid-19.
The streets of Lima had been filled with ordinary people dressed in overalls – integral suits against the virus – and, according to account, the atmosphere in the capital was “heavy.” The epidemiological situation in Peru was worsening along with the psychological pressure as in many other countries throughout the world. In the SJ environment, more and more people contracted the virus: friends, family, acquaintances …
“At one point I was surrounded by sick people and I thought it was only a matter of time before it touched me or my family,” he says, recalling the end of the first wave of the virus in the country.
In Peru, the first wave of the virus – with its death peak in July 2020 – had already put the health system on the ropes. But it was the second, after the Christmas holidays, in January 2021, that led to the total collapse of health centers.
From that date, the nightmare began for many, also for SJ, after his uncle contracted the disease in March. According to the Peruvian Ministry of Health, on March 11, 2021, of the 2,793 beds in Intensive Care Units (ICU) available in the country, 2,666 were occupied. Finding a place in the UCI became a race against time for many families.
“Mentally it was very heavy, because it was running and fighting to save someone and having nothing going for you. Besides having the feeling that if it didn’t go well it was your fault,” emphasizes the Peruvian about the struggle to find a place to enter your uncle.
Eager to find oxygen for their relative, SJ’s family – like hundreds more – tried to buy it online. But, with no ICU beds and a shortage of oxygen tanks in the city, his prognosis worsened. The doctor who treated them recommended that they find a place in intensive care for the patient but, despite the intense search on social networks and the dissemination of advertisements, they were not able to do so.
Three days after contracting the virus and after pleading in front of the door of a hospital in Lima, the family managed to be accepted in a center, although without guaranteeing oxygen or a bed in the ICU. Days later, his uncle died in a waiting room.
“I thought: could I have done something else for him to survive? But now I think about it and it makes no sense to ask that, because there is no answer,” says the victim, who had trouble processing the seriousness of what happened.
With this type of stressful situation, the pandemic has exposed the problem to receive good psychological treatment depending on the country. The figures show a very acute inequality: about half of the nations on the planet have national plans to address this issue and only a quarter have this type of care in the primary care unit.
Like Uncle SJ, there are thousands of cases. People who did not manage to enter the ICU when their life depended on it, but also, like SJ, those who saw several family members die and others who have been driven to their mental limit by constant uncertainty. Precisely, of this group, those who were aware and had the necessary resources received psychological help, thousands never had that option.
The mental aftermath of loss, uncertainty, and confinement
Over time, SJ processed what happened, but the fear that the episode would repeat itself remained. A discomfort that many people shared with her and that led her group of friends to consider buying an oxygen machine, in case someone needed it.
“We lived in the constant ‘just in case’. Nor did I eliminate the contacts of people who sold oxygen tanks, in case they needed them again,” he says, recalling the anguish of the moment.
The pandemic taught me to value the little things in life
For millions of people, anxiety, stress and feelings of guilt have become a daily occurrence during the health crisis. In SJ’s case, counseling helped her manage feelings of responsibility and anger over the loss of her loved one.
“Also, apart from the need for psychological help, at times, the pandemic taught me to value the little things in life. Things like having coffee with my mother, receiving a hug or being with my friends,” he points out about how the pandemic has also changed the way of seeing the lives of others.
But, far from the positive consequences in general, the wear and tear generated in many by confinement and the feeling of powerlessness in the face of the pandemic have resulted in the deterioration of the mental health of the population – understanding it as the psychological, emotional and social well-being of people-.
According a study from the scientific journal ‘The Lancet’, cases of severe depression and anxiety increased 28% and 26%, respectively, worldwide. Those most affected, women and young people.
Currently, one in seven young people between the ages of 10 and 19 lives with a diagnosed mental illness, a situation exacerbated by confinement, loss of loved ones and fear of contracting the virus. Worldwide, 46,000 young people in that age range commit suicide annually.
The front line of the pandemic: the medical staff in charge of saving lives
“You see how the patients and how your work colleagues are falling little by little,” says Rosa Vizdómine, a 25-year-old Spanish nurse, pointing to a situation that other people in her profession have experienced.
In Spain, a lot of pressure fell on the front line of the pandemic: health personnel. The data shows that one in five health workers has experienced some mental health disorder due to the health crisis; 27% depression, 22% anxiety and 21.5% post-traumatic stress syndrome.
The first nurse to die in Spain did so in the Basque Country. “It seemed that we were in mourning, you felt the virus very close,” recalls Vizdómine, who was in the Covid-19 plant of a hospital for the elderly in the region during the first wave of the pandemic.
For her, the hardest day started like any other. But during that day they launched a warning from the morgue of their hospital center: if only one more person died, there would be no space to store their body. Among other harsh memories, it stands out to see how many patients arrived dead at the hospital, as well as the pressure to decide whether or not to send a patient to the ICU. Something that many could not bear.
“I asked if we could send someone to the ICU and they told me they were collapsed. He was an elderly person, but with an autonomous life and because he was over 60 years old, they did not accept, ”he remarks, while detailing how many colleagues living in the UCI ward had to ask for a change, since they could not bear situations such as having to choose who to enter. function of age.
Hearing the cries on the other end of the phone and having to say that they couldn’t come to see the body was the hardest
Difficult situations that she and many other nurses had to deal with, such as communicating the death of patients to their families. “Hearing the cries on the other end of the phone and having to say that they could not come to see the body was the hardest,” he says while pointing out that many people, despite having families, died and were buried alone.
However, the increased mental pressure would increase even more for medical personnel during the second wave of the virus, starting in September 2020. The average age of deaths fell and the fear of contracting the virus and passing it to relatives, a fear common among health workers, increased.
“I saw how young people who came to the hospital on foot, ended up in tubes half an hour later,” recalls Vizdómine, who was transferred to Barcelona, one of the most affected cities in Spain during the second wave of the virus.
For Rosa and many of her colleagues, the work had psychological consequences. Loneliness and feelings of frustration became more and more recurrent and only dissipated after receiving psychological therapy.
“Despite the fact that the psychologist seems indispensable to me, I felt that the people of the union itself understood me even more,” he says. After the pandemic, his way of perceiving life and death has changed. “We normalize seeing people die, we were a funeral home,” he says sadly.
Many experts believe that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a mental health “pandemic.” Today, thousands of people around the world continue to need help due to the deterioration of their mental health after the health crisis. And, due to deficits in public health systems, many of them will never receive it.
* Name hidden at the request of the source
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