Swift Current presentation highlights the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health
Living through the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many mental health challenges due to isolation, grief and uncertainty, and it is therefore important to be kind to others and to yourself. This was a key message from mental health advocate and educator Jayne Whyte during an evening presentation at the Swift Current Branch Library, June 6.
The Regina resident made a presentation titled COVID and mental health – take care. She was also the guest speaker earlier on the same day at a Living Sky Casino team building event. She has been a member of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) since 1975 and she has researched, written and spoken about mental health topics for more than 40 years. She noted her business card identifies her as a mental health expert by experience and research.
“I was in Swift Current in 2019 as I toured the CMHA branches around Saskatchewan,” she noted. “At that time, I was offering workshops on loneliness. Little did I know that a pandemic was on the way that would significantly increase the effects of isolation and loneliness. Living with COVID has affected everyone’s mental health – isolation, grief, life changes, and uncertainty. There have always been emotional problems, but somehow the pandemic has made them more visible.”
She referred to the many challenges that were created by the pandemic and how it changed the way individuals and families lived and interacted.
“As we became more familiar with the airborne way virus is spread, we learned to wear masks and keep our distance,” she said. “Sadly for many families, keeping the distance meant separation from people they loved. Grandmothers waving at grandchildren through the windows of a nursing home, elders who were separated from their community for their own safety. Too many died, often alone and in distress, which was hard on their families too. Now, as things open up, friends and relatives are gathering for the memorial services that weren’t possible before vaccines made a difference for safety in our gatherings.”
The pandemic has challenged relationships and feelings of connection with others. Many felt vulnerable and worried about the health and safety of loved ones. For some there was more time during the pandemic to learn about themselves and to find new meaning, but others lost a sense of their roles and goals.
The arrival of vaccines provided a way forward in dealing with COVID-19, but it also became a reason for disagreements and polarization.
“I know people that have to say mom and dad won’t get vaccinated, so they can’t see the grandchildren,” she mentioned. “That has an impact on the mental health of everybody.”
Personal experiences of the pandemic have also changed and evolved. While the lifting of public health restrictions and mask mandates have created a sense of a return to normal life, there are still those who have to be careful due to their age or pre-existing health conditions. Whyte emphasized the intention of her presentation was not to take any sides in the many debates and discussions about the pandemic.
“I realize there are controversies about the value of isolation and vaccines and lockdowns, but my purpose is not to make judgements about the decisions you and your family make,” she said. “My purpose is to acknowledge the grief and loneliness and disruption to our lives caused by an invisible virus that changed our lives.”
She referred to the results of a Mental Health Research Canada poll from April 2022 on the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Canadians. The findings indicate that 21 per cent of Canadians reported high levels of anxiety. This was slightly down from the December results.
“Fortunately, more Canadians felt they were managing their day-by-day functioning than when they studied it in December,” she said. “So we are going in the right direction.”
Other results from this April 2022 research poll indicate that 59 per cent of Canadians expressed anxiety about the continued threat of COVID-19, and 41 per cent of people worried that a family member would catch the virus compared to 34 per cent who worried about their own health. The data indicate that 39 per cent worried about social isolation and being apart from others.
“The highest next thing to their own health or their families was that feeling of being isolated from one another,” she said.
The data also show the extent to which anxiety and depression levels have increased since the start of the pandemic. High anxiety increased from five per cent before March 2020 to 21 per cent in April 2022. High depression increased from four per cent in March 2020 to 14 per cent in April 2022.
The number of people with thoughts of suicide increased in both these groups. Among those who said they experienced high anxiety in April 2022, 35 per cent indicated they thought of suicide in the past year. Among those who said they experienced high depression in April 2022, 49 per cent said they thought of suicide in the past year.
“It’s really very telling about why we need good mental health support during this post-COVID time,” she noted.
People with good mental health are able to cope with changed circumstances, because it enables them to accept the situation and find healthy ways to deal with difficulties.
“Grief is not a mental illness,” she said. “Anger and frustration are not mental illnesses. Fear of actual risks is not a mental illness. But these feelings do
change our sense of well-being. When we get to this low mental well-being, it’s often because we’re not able to cope with an overwhelming of the circumstances in our lives. At times like that, we need to ask for help, support and understanding to help us get through the tough times. COVID has been one of those tough times.”
She referred to the World Health Organization definition of mental health, which describes it as a state of well-being in which individuals realize their abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, and are able to work productively and make a contribution to their community.
Several factors will contribute to a person’s sense of good mental health. They are a sense of purpose, strong relationships with family, friends and at the workplace, feeling connected to others, having a good sense of self, coping with stress, and enjoying life. “These have all been stressed and strained by the COVID experience,” she said. “It’s hard when our roles change to maintain your sense of self, and those things have happened to us during COVID.”
It is therefore important to be kind to
others and to yourself. Self-care means that a person will also have a sense of self-compassion. She explained that compassion is the nice things you say to others, while self-compassion or inner compassion means saying those same things to yourself.
“One of the things we’ve been taught for years is not to let people know what we’re feeling,” she said. “And yet it’s really important that we share our feelings, especially in these times when we need to cut each other a bit of slack, including ourselves. … It is important in that self-compassion, to give us room to make mistakes, because if we don’t dare make mistakes, we don’t dare doing anything. And it’s better to do something than to do nothing.”
Whyte referred to the importance of community for good mental health and a sense of well-being, because isolation can feed anxiety and stress.
“And community is more than just the mental health services,” she said. “Community is the housing, the income support, the social support, the feeling that you belong and are welcomed and a part of the society in which you live. So I have a dream that we could build a society where people hear each other with compassion and kindness.”