Mental health pandemic will continue
When the country's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam proclaimed Canada was truly past the crest of the third wave of COVID-19, you could sense a feeling of hope among those who have been dealing with the pandemic.
Declining rates of infection across most of the country, having over half the population vaccinated with at least one dose and the expectation of millions of additional doses arriving over the next few weeks are reasons for optimism.
Despite some pockets of infections, most provinces are making plans to offer second doses ahead of schedule and many expect any Canadian who wishes can be fully vaccinated by autumn.
It's not surprising most provinces have announced plans for a gradual reopening and lifting of the restrictions we have been living under. It appears most have learned from the previous waves and have tied reopening goals to vaccination rates and continued low infection rates rather than setting clear dates on a calendar.
We can hope that all provinces choose to rely on sound scientific advice in making these choices and not allow political motivation to drive them to move too swiftly in lifting restrictions.
One of the results of this pandemic has been an increased awareness of mental health and the impact isolation and other necessary restrictions have had on all of us, particularly those already dealing with mental health issues. Now that we have hope these restrictions will soon be lifted and we can think about returning to a normal life, you might expect there will be fewer people struggling with mental health. However, many in the mental health community expect the "return to normal" will bring with it an increased level of stress and anxiety for a number of people.
This pandemic has brought a great amount of uncertainty and there have been many changes in advice from medical experts as their knowledge of this new virus increased. While this was necessary, it allowed those who challenged the seriousness of the pandemic to sow seeds of doubt, which have continued to influence the progress of our response. For whatever reason, some people will refuse to get vaccinated, leading to fears we will not attain herd immunity.
We're also still learning about how effective the vaccines will be against the new variants. As long as there are places in the world where the virus continues to run unchecked in the population — as is the case in most of the world — new mutations are expected to develop.
When we combine this with our own experience with the pandemic — thinking we had things under control only to have a community outbreak that rapidly spreads, leading to a return to lockdown — it isn't surprising many people have significant concerns for their safety as we enter this reopening phase. There are no guarantees everything will continue to be OK, and this ongoing uncertainty can be very difficult on one's mental health.
Despite the challenges of the restrictions, many people have become used to the ways we have limited the spread of COVID-19, especially using masks in public places, and over the past 15 months, it's created a feeling of safety seeing these things being enforced.
Talk of lifting these restrictions while there is no absolute certainty that the pandemic will not return in a more virulent form is terrifying for many. If we're fortunate, we may soon be able to move past the disease part of this pandemic, but I expect the mental health impact will continue to affect people for years to come.