Nationwide, mental health call and text centers, the first lines of defense for many people feeling jittery during a crisis, offer an early picture of how Americans are coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
Many crisis centers are reporting 30% to 40% increases in the number of people seeking help. The helpline at Provident is experiencing a tenfold increase compared with this time last year, when no national disaster was occurring. So far, the nation's most heavily used helpline, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, has not seen a spike in call volume.
But mental health experts predict an avalanche of mental health needs as the pandemic progresses.
Ultimately, the psychological impact of the pandemic will harm far more people than the virus itself. And the widespread emotional trauma it's evoking will be long lasting, experts say. Already, more than 4 in 10 Americans say that stress related to the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health, according to an April poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"There's no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic will be the most psychologically toxic disaster in anyone's lifetime," said George Everly, who teaches disaster mental health and human resilience at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"This pandemic is a disaster of uncertainty," he explained, "and the greater the uncertainty surrounding a disaster, the greater the psychological casualties."
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More than 47,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2017, making it the 10th-leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same year, 1.4 million adults attempted suicide and 10.6 million reported seriously considering suicide, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The suicide rate in the United States has risen 30% since 2000, with the highest prevalence among middle-aged white men. At the same time, deaths from drug overdoses and alcohol abuse have risen sharply, resulting in a decrease in American life expectancy for three consecutive years.
This rise in what are called deaths of despair, social scientists say, is caused by worsening economic conditions and social isolation in much of the nation over the past two decades.
Last week, a mental health advocacy nonprofit released an analysis predicting that the massive job losses resulting from the economic shutdown during the pandemic, compounded by increased social isolation, could lead to an even sharper increase in deaths of despair.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed about 79,000 Americans, could lead to another 75,000 deaths from alcohol and drug misuse and suicide, the analysis projected.
Article: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/05/12/fear-isolation-depression-the-mental-health-fallout-of-a-worldwide-pandemic
Many crisis centers are reporting 30% to 40% increases in the number of people seeking help. The helpline at Provident is experiencing a tenfold increase compared with this time last year, when no national disaster was occurring. So far, the nation's most heavily used helpline, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, has not seen a spike in call volume.
But mental health experts predict an avalanche of mental health needs as the pandemic progresses.
Ultimately, the psychological impact of the pandemic will harm far more people than the virus itself. And the widespread emotional trauma it's evoking will be long lasting, experts say. Already, more than 4 in 10 Americans say that stress related to the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health, according to an April poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"There's no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic will be the most psychologically toxic disaster in anyone's lifetime," said George Everly, who teaches disaster mental health and human resilience at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"This pandemic is a disaster of uncertainty," he explained, "and the greater the uncertainty surrounding a disaster, the greater the psychological casualties."
...
More than 47,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2017, making it the 10th-leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same year, 1.4 million adults attempted suicide and 10.6 million reported seriously considering suicide, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The suicide rate in the United States has risen 30% since 2000, with the highest prevalence among middle-aged white men. At the same time, deaths from drug overdoses and alcohol abuse have risen sharply, resulting in a decrease in American life expectancy for three consecutive years.
This rise in what are called deaths of despair, social scientists say, is caused by worsening economic conditions and social isolation in much of the nation over the past two decades.
Last week, a mental health advocacy nonprofit released an analysis predicting that the massive job losses resulting from the economic shutdown during the pandemic, compounded by increased social isolation, could lead to an even sharper increase in deaths of despair.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed about 79,000 Americans, could lead to another 75,000 deaths from alcohol and drug misuse and suicide, the analysis projected.
Article: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/05/12/fear-isolation-depression-the-mental-health-fallout-of-a-worldwide-pandemic
