(Riya Singh, Intern Journalist): The Covid-19 pandemic causes a mental health epidemic in the Americas over six months of lockdowns and stay-at-home initiatives due to heightened tension and drug and alcohol consumption, the regional director of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. The pandemic has also brought a related problem in a surge in domestic violence against women, said Carissa Etienne in a Pan American Health Organization virtual briefing in Washington.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a mental health crisis in our region at a scale we’ve never seen before,” she said. “It is urgent that mental health support is considered a critical component of the pandemic response.”
Etienne called for governments to improve mental health programs as part of their response to the pandemic, and to promote mental health. Attention must be paid to growing domestic abuse, Etienne said. “Ongoing stay-at-home measures, coupled with the social and economic impacts of this virus, are increasing the risks of domestic violence – home is not a safe space for many,” she said.
Helpline calls in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico have increased, but the actual scale of domestic abuse during the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be underestimated, as survivors are stuck at home and services are disrupted, said Etienne. With reduced contact to friends and family or barriers in access to services and shelters, survivors are left with nowhere to go.
Coronavirus cases have reached nearly 11.5 million in the Americas, and more than 400,000 people died as a result of the pandemic, the WHO regional director said.
The region continues to carry the disease’s highest burden, with 64 percent of world deaths officially reported despite 13 percent of the world’s population. The United States and Brazil are the big drivers of the case counts, she added.
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