The COVID-19 pandemic has created universal impacts on mental health. Anxiety, depression, and other conditions have worsened as financial instability, isolation, gender-based violence, and other factors generated by this crisis have contributed to poor mental health – especially for youth, LGBTQ+ populations, and pregnant/postpartum women. Yet despite the global attention focused on mental health, overall conditions have only worsened in vulnerable communities.

Fallout of Quarantine for Youth

The mental health crisis of this pandemic for youth begins in hostile home environments. Young people across the globe were uniquely impacted by the pandemic as they transitioned to at-home learning amid COVID-19-related school closures.

In the United States, a significant number of high school students report experiencing most of their mental health challenges while at home during the pandemic. Newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from April of this year revealed that 37 percent of U.S. high school students reported poor mental health during the pandemic.

And as families were confined to their homes to quarantine for long periods, abuse by parents and guardians towards youth rose. In the same study, over 55 percent of youth reported emotional abuse by a parent or an adult at home—including verbal insults and swearing. With a sizeable proportion of youth also experiencing physical abuse, these numbers testify to the harm experienced by young people in the United States.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, school closures had a similar impact. In one study, social distancing and isolation were associated with anxiety and depression among Latin American youth. And as these young people dealt with life-altering circumstances, they also often reported not having the same interest in their daily activities. One-third of surveyed youth attributed their mental health conditions to their economic situation during COVID-19. The study noted that young girls and women in Latin America and the Caribbean reported being especially pessimistic about their economic futures.

School support is critical for the mental well-being of students, and isolation also played havoc with young people’s mental health. The April 2022 CDC data showed that disruptions in traditional classroom learning led students to experience difficulty in forging relationships with their peers and teachers. Among students who did not have strong relationships with their schools, more than half (53 percent) reported feeling sad, and over a quarter (26 percent) reported considering suicide. On the other hand, students who were connected to adults and their school peers were less likely to report continuous feelings of sadness. Those who had strong relationships with their schools were far less likely to report feeling sad (35 percent) or to consider suicide (14 percent).

Youth of color who endure intersectional challenges have seen that the pandemic has only aggravated poor mental health. Incidents of anti-Asian hate have sharply increased, with nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of Asian students experiencing discrimination. In addition, more than half of Black students and interracial students (55 percent) experienced racism as a result of the pandemic. Youth of color must juggle the stress of the public health crisis and the distress of racial discrimination on a daily basis, which created a further deterioration in their mental health.

Compounded Stress for LGBTQ+ Populations

The lived experience of LGBTQ+ communities around the world due to the pandemic has been dire. Even before the pandemic, LGBTQ+ youth were disproportionately impacted by poverty, food insecurity, and homelessness, which have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the onset of the pandemic, over 50 percent of sexual and gender minority youth have reported increased symptoms of anxiety and depression. In Mexico, a study found that the prevalence of depression symptoms was six-times higher for gay men and transgender communities during the pandemic. Factors such as job loss, lack of social support, and HIV risk behaviors contributed to poor mental health.

Social and physical distancing along with school closures has led to LGBTQ+ young people having to be in unsafe and non-supportive environments, making them increasingly vulnerable to emotional and physical violence as well as rejection from their families. In Nigeria, the restrictions on the physical movement of LGBTQ+ youth have led to increasing confrontations and concealment of their identity.

The drastic reduction of in-person study and life at universities during COVID-19 has also created disruptions. Universities are often the first opportunity for LGBTQ+ youth to explore their identities away from home. Gender and sexuality affirming student organizations, peers, teachers, and community centers that were previously available to LGBTQ+ youth before the pandemic became largely inaccessible. Gay and transgender students in Bali, Indonesia were four times more likely to report moderate to severe psychological distress in contrast to their non-LGBTQ+ peers.

Global research has found that the heteronormativity and cisnormativity in policy response to disasters such as a pandemic consistently ignore the needs of LGBTQ+ populations. Issues that have an impact on LGBTQ+ populations, during the pandemic, including discrimination in accessing emergency government services, often go unreported. Government agencies also rarely support LGBTQ+-affirming interventions during recovery efforts.

Pregnancy and Maternity Risks

Pregnant and lactating people around the world also suffered substantial mental health impacts created by the pandemic— including a high prevalence of anxiety, insomnia, depression, and social dysfunction. According to a meta-analysis, one-third of lactating and pregnant people surveyed reported anxiety, while 27 percent reported depression.

The unprecedented way that COVID-19 separated pregnant and lactating people from their loved ones also had implications for their mental and emotional health. Cognitive and behavioral issues during pregnancy and postpartum recovery can have serious implications on the health and wellbeing of parents and their children. Thirty-four percent of pregnant and lactating people around the world reported insomnia, and a further twenty-four percent reported social dysfunction. Such findings indicate the need for medical providers, policymakers, and loved ones to address perinatal stress and discomfort for pregnant and lactating women to prevent disturbances in child development and maternal mental health.

One of the central lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis is that mental health services around the world should be accessible and culturally informed, especially when serving those hardest hit by the pandemic. Deconstructing stigma is crucial to increasing the utilization of mental health services for communities that have already felt alienated in their mental health conditions. Telehealth and hotline support is becoming more prevalent, yet those with unique vulnerabilities need more support because of socioeconomic barriers to access to a mobile device and reliable internet. Increasing support available to at-risk groups would help to alleviate mental health stressors and improve the mental health of those most impacted by the pandemic. toward improved mental health

Source: newsecuritybeat.org