https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/pandemic-effects-will-linger-1.6047081
Mental health could be the 'echo pandemic' once the public health crisis eases
Suicide rates have been stable, but more people have considered it, study finds
The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission is seeing exponential growth during the pandemic in the number of complaints filed on the basis of mental disability.
In the last fiscal year, 115 complaints were filed based on mental disability. There were 60 the previous year, said Claire Roussel-Sullivan, the chair of the commission.
And so far this year, the commission has already seen more complaints than it did in the year leading into the pandemic. That's 67 complaints in less than two months — more than all of 2019-2020.
"So that's significantly higher than previous years," said Roussel-Sullivan.
She said "mental disability" can include everything from mental disorders to depression and anxiety.
And the mental health fallout from the pandemic may be felt for years to come, says the executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association of New Brunswick.
Christa Baldwin said the number of New Brunswickers reaching out for help soared during the pandemic. She predicts things will only get worse as society emerges from "survival mode."
Christa
Baldwin, the executive director of the Canadian Mental Health
Association of New Brunswick, predicts mental health will become an
'echo pandemic' of COVID-19. (Submitted by Christa Baldwin)
She said mental health will become an "echo pandemic" of COVID-19.
"This is a real crisis point now for mental health," said Baldwin.
Before the pandemic, the New Brunswick association was providing services to about 86,000 residents. Baldwin said that jumped to 204,000 because of COVID-19.
Roughly 70 per cent of the visits to the group's website during the pandemic were new visitors, said Baldwin.
"So when we talk about mental health demand, that's significant."
Baldwin said it's been "all hands on deck" at the association during the pandemic.
Study finds stable suicide rate
Baldwin said she isn't surprised by most pandemic-related statistics — except the suicide rate.
Research done by the Canadian Mental Health Association, in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, reveals that the suicide rate has remained stable through the pandemic, but the number of people thinking about suicide has increased.
It went from about two per cent of people surveyed prior to the pandemic "to six per cent to 10 per cent during different parts of the pandemic," said Baldwin.
The survey asked 3,027 people in Canada specifically about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health.
Although the study doesn't show an increase in the number of suicides, Baldwin said an increase in the number of people thinking about it is "pretty concerning."
Thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed said their mental health has declined because of COVID-19.
And the figures are worse for those who were already struggling before the pandemic. That group was twice as likely to say their mental health has declined because of COVID-19, and four times more likely to have suicidal thoughts or tried to harm themselves, the survey suggests.
'Chronic under funding'
"In some ways, the history we have been living has brought us to this situation," said Baldwin.
"The chronic under funding of mental health in this province by every government that we've had hasn't allowed us to have the right or appropriate resources in place to help people with their mental health needs."
Baldwin said governments have to invest more in proactive mental health care.
"We've recognized that we cannot treat our way out of this mental health crisis that we're finding ourselves in now. We need to be upstream and have the preventative lens and earlier intervention to help people before they reach the crisis point."
She would like to see mental health receive the same amount of funding as physical health, but there is a long way to go to close that gap.
"Mental health is a universal human right equal to physical health," Baldwin said. "So all people have a right to accessible and appropriate mental health services the way they do for physical health.
"So if someone is reaching out because they have a broken leg, you go to the hospital, you get a cast, you have appropriate services. You're not sent away, come back in two weeks for a cast. So that's where we need to land with mental health."
More problems or less stigma?
In the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission's most recent annual report, mental disabilities are cited four times more than they were 20 years ago.
And for the first time ever, mental disabilities are cited more often than physical disabilities.
Roussel-Sullivan said it's difficult to say whether there are more mental health issues or whether people just feel more comfortable talking about them.
"We know, based on our data, that more people are putting in complaints, but we can't say whether there are more people in the province getting diagnosed with some type of mental illness," she said.
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33 Comments
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David Amos
Methinks there is no news here for me. At least everybody knows Higgy et al have trying to call me crazy for years but the shrinks won't go near me anymore me since the discovered that they won't be paid for their precious time because the "Powers That Be" have been denying my right to Health Care by simply renewing my Medicare card long before the pesky virus landed in New Brunswick and upset the apple cart N'esy Pas?
Jay Edwards
Content deactivated
November the coroner report will be coming out...suicides will outpace CV19 deaths.
PHIL INNIS
Content deactivated
Reply to @Jay Edwards: facts
David Amos
Content deactivated
Reply to @Jay Edwards: Of that I have no doubt
Ben Haroldson
They already sell a vaccine for that, it's called lpc, gnb ..pot and beer.
SarahRose Werner
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: You're confusing a vaccine with a treatment.
David Amos
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Methinks Higgy et al know that l don't drink beer and don't smoke dope and definitely won't take a shot of a untested substance they dare to call a vaccine. I trust that you understand it is not wise not to try to be comfortably numb to often these days. An old Hillbilly such a I find it far more fun to to keep my wits about me as I monitor my crazy Labrador puppy as I watch the never ending circus unfolding its tent on a daily basis around the world and add my two bits worth now and then much to Higgy's chagrin N'esy Pas?
eddy watts
Well past the echo stage: no one is talking about the mental disease created by no work....social norms turned upside down....loss of hope...alcoholism....other drug addictions. (restrictions..some day there will be a forensic accounting of how many deaths were directly caused by Covid vs. the numbers we see reported)
David Amos
Reply to @eddy watts: Dream on
Randy McNally
Reply to @eddy watts: Well as it turns out, mental episodes and suicides were not way up during the peak of Covid madness as predicted. Seems people adapt a lot better than most thought to not working and cocooning. While the OCD people kept in step by doing everything the government told them and barking at everyone else for not doing the same. So it is - the life of a human.
Randy McNally
Kudos to the CBC and to the writer of this piece, Mia Urquhart, for shining some much needed light into the dark recesses of 21 century society. Mental health or the lack thereof is something that must be
met head on and dealt with if we are ever going to make it as a healthy Canadian population. Depression and anxiety holds countless thousands hostage in this province. They go undetected and unnoticed as they go about their lives in public as they project no negative
physical attributes although they are seriously ill just the same.
David Amos
Reply to @Randy McNally: Yea Right
Jeff Smith
Oh no all the store employees won't be able to bark at us where to stand in line. Such a terrible time - for the rest of us it will be shear joy.
David Amos
Reply to @Jeff Smith: Don't bet on it
Pat Holland
Every other country has seen suicide rates jump. Makes you wonder where
they are getting their data. We should never allow government to do this
to our country ever again
SarahRose Werner
Reply to @Pat Holland: Be nice if we never had another pandemic again - but I wouldn't be surprised if we did.
David Amos
Reply to @Pat Holland: I concur
Mary Smith
Reply to @Pat Holland: "Every other country has seen suicide rates jump"
Suicide rates, without CERB and so much support/outreach for mental health during the pandemic, would have been worse I bet. Imagine how bad it would have been without the CERB. There was so much attention to mental health, probably more than ever before really. People were constantly reaching out to each other, trying to support each other (from a distance) that it was nice to see. The bad can bring out the good in people. Losing family/friends to covid, having no financial support there, that would be heavy on folks.
"We should never allow government to do this to our country ever again"
The government didn't do anything, the pandemic did. Either way - let it run wild or put measures in place - people would have suffered. We had CERB and the like - where many other countries were not so lucky to have that safety net there for folks - and that helped out drastically. Could we have done better? Absolutely, we could have acted sooner, gone with a New Zealand like approach of go hard and early, but we didn't. The provinces really decided for themselves, for the most part, and businesses and individual actions mattered a lot. Atlantic Canada had a different approach to the rest of the country and benefited greatly. Had all the provinces acted like Atlantic Canada did, with early measures and emphasis on proactive quarantines, we could have all benefited and been able to bubble up together, but that wasn't the case. So it's been long and drawn out, rather than a New Zealand like method of reaping the rewards of going hard and early. If another pandemic hits, hopefully Canada will follow an Atlantic Canada/New Zealand's path and we'll all be better off together for it.
Mary Smith
Reply to @Mary Smith: "It is like those with mental health challenges were practicing for a pandemic to occur. They have long known the world is heavy, unpredictable, and unfair. [...] “I think we recognize that we are not in control and that bad things will happen. Feeling like you control your own fate completely is a nice idea, but those of us with PTSD know that we don’t control everything. So, we learn to determine what is within our power to change and that’s a big thing.” Acceptance is not an easy thing to have, especially when so many things feel out of control and unknown, like in a pandemic. Yet, it is still possible for even the most anxious brain to do. Perkoski adds, “when you’re dealing with a brain that constantly acts as if the sky is falling, you know exactly what to do when the sky IS falling.”"
This describes what I was trying to say really well. Some people who were hardest hit by the pandemic depression were not necessarily those that were already depressed. With supports in place, financial supports in place so people don't lose income through no fault of their own, and emphasis on folks to check in on each other, it's better than it could have been had that not been in place for this pandemic. We spend so much of our lives never sitting still, it's hard for some to pause when they aren't used to it. Especially in our modern worlds where folks text at red lights because they can't sit still without a distraction to be had.
We should be more proactive with mental health, have more support there so folks can access it when they need it, and we can try to learn from this pandemic and change what we prioritize in our post pandemic world. We need to take care of each other, have support there for folks sooner rather than later, so we're all okay.
Mary Smith
Reply to @Mary Smith: *(commented here on the wrong comment by mistake)
Randy McNally
Reply to @Pat Holland: "We" probably wouldn't, but there is a far more than a critical mass who would do it in a heartbeat
James Smythe
The Higgs govt will plan to solve this by simply never declaring the
“public health crisis” to be over. Problem solved!
David Amos
Reply to @James Smythe: Sad but true
Terry Tibbs
Reply to @James Smythe:
And likely claw back more health funding, and get around to, if not closing those 6 hospitals they wanted to close, short fund them to the point of uselessness.
Randy McNally
Reply to @James Smythe: Or worse than that, maybe they'll subtly take some of the key measures which allow them to continue to some degree, and pass them into law with their "big stick" majority.
Randy McNally
Reply to @Terry Tibbs: I think THAT is a given
SarahRose Werner
This doesn't surprise me. One of the ways you deal with living with
mental health issues is to build supports into your daily routine. This
works pretty well - until something happens that disrupts your
routine. Of course the pandemic disrupted everyone's routines! For some
people, this was a major annoyance. But for other people, it knocked out
the supports that they were relying on to get them through each day.
David Amos
Reply to @SarahRose Werner: Nothing you say surprises me
Mary Smith
Reply to @SarahRose Werner: There's also a flip side. Some who were anxious/depressed/all that, were suddenly seeing everyone else in a similar state in various degrees. It sort of was a paradoxical response than you'd necessarily expect. Those who really had depression hit (aside from financial struggles and such, but CERB was there thankfully) after the pandemic hit were most likely folks that never took a moment to sit still, and that sudden stillness made them think more about things they were avoiding. Sitting still, no distractions, really force people to think and get inside their own heads more than they would have, especially if you're the type to not do that normally, and are the type that is constantly on the go with distractions.
Meanwhile, those with depression/anxiety were able to step away from things that made them depressed (fear of missing out, social anxiety, etc). Seeing other people struggling too also made some feel better about their own struggles, reminding them that everyone sometimes struggles. It's like the mask that most folks wear dropped during the pandemic, everyone was together, struggling, and that unites us all and it makes us remember that we're all human, with our own struggles, and we're not alone in going through hard times sometimes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicagold/2020/06/08/feeling-less-anxiety-since-the-coronavirus-lockdown-youre-not-alone/?sh=4cf47aea3874
Mary Smith
Reply to @Mary Smith: It is like those with mental health challenges were practicing for a pandemic to occur. They have long known the world is heavy, unpredictable, and unfair. [...] “I think we recognize that we are not in control and that bad things will happen. Feeling like you control your own fate completely is a nice idea, but those of us with PTSD know that we don’t control everything. So, we learn to determine what is within our power to change and that’s a big thing.” Acceptance is not an easy thing to have, especially when so many things feel out of control and unknown, like in a pandemic. Yet, it is still possible for even the most anxious brain to do. Perkoski adds, “when you’re dealing with a brain that constantly acts as if the sky is falling, you know exactly what to do when the sky IS falling.”"
This describes what I was trying to say really well. Some people who were hardest hit by the pandemic depression were not necessarily those that were already depressed. With supports in place, financial supports in place so people don't lose income through no fault of their own, and emphasis on folks to check in on each other, it's better than it could have been had that not been in place for this pandemic. We spend so much of our lives never sitting still, it's hard for some to pause when they aren't used to it. Especially in our modern worlds where folks text at red lights because they can't sit still without a distraction to be had.
We should be more proactive with mental health, have more support there so folks can access it when they need it, and we can try to learn from this pandemic and change what we prioritize in our post pandemic world. We need to take care of each other, have support there for folks sooner rather than later, so we're all okay.
Randy McNally
Reply to @SarahRose Werner: Tricks we play on ourselves, for sure. But maybe not so much SARS II itself but the way in which governments responded to it. A way that some say, may havebeen brought to us by the same people who brought us everything else. Humpty Dumpty will never go back together again permanently. The integrity of the crazy glue will only last so long and although duct tape may work thereafter, it just won't ever look the same
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