Warning: COVID-Fueled Mental Health Crisis Will Be a Costly Second Pandemic

[yaesu]

Devastating conditions like major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder are among the leading causes of disability in established market economies, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. In the U.S., more than one in four adults was suffering from a diagnosable mental disorder even before the pandemic.

For too long, cost and access barriers to mental health care have caused incalculable suffering.

Covid has now blown the lid off a crisis building for decades. So why isn’t there a plan to deal with it?


The Lancet reports that cases of mental disorders have skyrocketed during the pandemic, including 53 million new cases of major depressive disorder and 76 million new cases of anxiety disorders. In the U.S., since spring of 2020, the National Center for Health Statistics has partnered with the Census Bureau on a new, rapid-turnaround data system to monitor depression and anxiety, finding that just over half of adults between the ages of 18 and 44 surveyed have reported symptoms, as have 38% of adults living with children.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/warning-covid-fueled-mental-health-crisis-will-be-a-costly-second-pandemic

[CrispyQ]

1. We pretty much ignore mental illness in this country.

Cuz you know, your brain isn't really part of your body.

[Nay]

2. Here's why there is no plan to cover it:

Insurance companies won't pay for it without raising rates to unholy levels

Even if, by a miracle, ins companies or govt would pay, there aren't enough mental health care workers or intake facilities to shoulder the load. (Recent example: during the pandemic, a kid I know was acting out, failing classes, running away, etc. His parents tried to find a psychiatrist/psychologist/etc. to treat him, but they all said, "Unless his harming himself physically, we don't have room."

[bucolic_frolic]

3. I feel the covid isolation

I see others on DU too.