Mental health crisis in the making
It is with reference to a recent article in The Herald which exposed efforts made by Uitenhage Provincial Hospital to restrict staff from disclosing their Covid-19 status to colleagues that I note a deep concern over the apparent disregard for the fight against this pandemic on the mental health front.
On May 13, the secretarygeneral to the World Health Organisation urged governments and civil society to step up efforts to address the knock-on effects the pandemic has on the prevalence of mental health issues globally.
Current mental health prevalence studies are only starting to reveal the rate at which the pandemic is pummelling the global psyche, and preliminary findings suggest we can expect a similar wave of mental health crises to previous global traumatic events.
The pandemic’s cost to the global GDP is undeniable. Markets have collapsed and governments are spending billions on ramping up healthcare facilities, developing vaccines and acquiring PPE.
As a mental health-care professional, it deeply concerns me that the cost of what the Harvard Business Review coined the “emotional infection” rate of the pandemic receives little to no attention.
At a global prevalence rate of 6% prior to the pandemic, depression was considered the largest health-related factor in the loss of workplace productivity and cost to GDP.
Preliminary prevalence studies in the US currently place depression prevalence rates closer to 50% within certain populations.
This suggests that we can expect compounded loss of workplace productivity and significantly slowed economic growth even as markets gradually open up again.
But these are just contextual considerations.
Let us not forget that we are dealing with individual lives and a real shared sense of loss and uncertainty that we are all experiencing to some degree or another.
We are talking about disadvantaged communities for which lockdown regulations equate to hunger and starvation. We are talking about health-care professionals at the front-line, who return home to vulnerable families after working a full day in PPE-scarce facilities.
Efforts to fight the pandemic on a mental health front are not limited to caring for those considered at risk or vulnerable, but require an open dialogue on the institutionalised stigmatisation and marginalisation of those who are perceived as a burden to society, or staff morale.
Uninformed efforts to curb the “emotional infection” of health-care staff by preventing those who test positive from disclosing their status does not assist in maintaining workplace productivity.
Quite the opposite, it evokes a social dynamic which reinforces a fear of stigma and sense of emotional isolation or lack of support.
Governments, companies and institutions all share responsibility in the global effort to address the stigma attached to the disclosure of suspected Covid-19 symptoms and mental health issues.
I believe Uitenhage Provincial Hospital staff have a right to disclose their status without fear of prejudice.
As a society we will fail spectacularly to revive workplace morale, rebuild our individual lives and the economy if we fail to construct an open platform that rewards honest discourse on the reality of how we are all being affected by the current times.