Psychiatrists gauge mental toll of COVID

AMMAN — The COVID pandemic and the restrictions put in place to curb the virus have taken a toll on people’s mental health as depression, anxiety, and panic among others, have noticeably increased, according to psychiatrists.

Nasri Jacir, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, noted that the "Grief Model" will help better understand what people are going through.  

The Grief Model, also known as Kubler-Ross Model, postulates that people who experience grief pass through five different stages, namely: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  

“During the pandemic, I noticed that people alternated between all of those stages except acceptance. The problem with the pandemic is that, unlike the shock of losing a relative or a loved one, there is no expected end date on the horizon,” Jacir explained.  

Ashraf Salhi, a psychiatrist, stated that the number of patients seeking help in his clinic increased by 30 to 40 per cent during the pandemic.   

 According to Salhi, depression and other issues related to mental health wellbeing in adults will be fully revealed immediately after the pandemic ends. For children, particularly those between the ages of six and nine, signs of psychological distress can take up to 10 years after the pandemic is over to be fully revealed.  

“Children are quite vulnerable, and they may not be able to express the grief that they are feeling. Once the pandemic ends, it is not enough to tell them to return to their normal lives. For a long time, children have been denied access to schools, entertainment avenues, and peer interaction. These children require proper counselling, and if this aspect is ignored, children will pent their emotions, which will manifest themselves at a later age,” Salhi explained.  

Pandemics, like wars, cause significant trauma for people, according to Jacir. As a result, many people will experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when the pandemic ends. 

As such, Jordan needs to be well prepared to deal with the highly probable crisis in mental health ensuing from the pandemic, but first, there are several challenges that must be overcome, Salhi said.  

The first challenge is the lack of psychiatrists, which is a major impediment to combating widespread mental health issues, he said.

The second factor is the high cost of private sector treatment. As a result, people either do not seek treatment altogether or go to public mental health clinics, which causes crowdedness and overloading of the working staff there, he said.

The third factor is the lack of medications needed to assist treatment of patients especially amid rapid increases in the number of patients, Salhi said.

 The final factor is that most medical insurance plans do not cover psychiatry treatment, making it difficult for many people to access mental healthcare, he added.