The extremely extraordinary uncertainties arising out of the covid-19 pandemic are affecting everyone’s mental health, said Vikram Patel, professor of global health, Harvard Medical School, at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Friday.
Methods such as maintaining social distance, participating in sports, talking to each other, watching good shows and reading good books are very effective in dealing with mental health issues, Patel said.
Schools should be opened soon to prevent harmful impact on children, he said. “Schools should open soon. Otherwise, covid-19 will have a very bad effect on students,” Patel added.
There is a need for unconditional income support for those who have borne the brunt of the covid-19 crisis, Patel said. Mental health is worsening and this is being exacerbated by the pandemic, he said.
Data is coming from many countries, including India and Bangladesh, about how people are facing stress and mental health problems, Patel said.
“For those groups of the population whose employment prospects have been extinguished altogether, I think the impact on mental health is going to be far more serious,” he said.
Patel urged people to learn ways to mitigate stress. Stress is not bad but becomes bad when it becomes toxic, he said.
There has never been a better time to seek help for mental health issues and there is the need to normalize conversations around this, Patel said.
With carefully designed training programmes, frontline workers can deliver very effective psychological and social interventions, he said.
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