COVID-19 and Mental Health

The COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than 4 million Americans and killed some 150,000 has also caused increased anxiety, depression and stress, conditions brought on by grief, uncertainty, economic pain, isolation and fear. As deaths and hospitalizations rise sharply in many states, calls to suicide hotlines are spiking, and researchers say 25 percent to 40 percent of health care workers and first responders likely will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Experts fear the effects of the pandemic and the lockdowns it has triggered are causing higher rates of domestic and child abuse and substance abuse disorders. And the economic fallout from the virus could cause between 27,644 and 154,037 “deaths of despair” — suicides and deaths from drug and alcohol misuse — according to experts. Mental health care providers say they are bracing for a second pandemic-related crisis in the coming months that could overwhelm the nation's chronically underfunded mental health system, which suffers from gaps in insurance and access to care and a shortage of mental health professionals.