The mental health of the population has deteriorated, without much increase in resources for care -

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  • A WHO report denounces the lack of resources for mental health in the world, while the demand for care increases with the coronavirus.

  • In France, the general population saw their psychological distress increase, while people who were already suffering from mental disorders could not always be treated correctly.

  • Between adaptation, distinction and lack of consideration,

    20 Minutes

    takes stock.

The specter of a reconfinement, the closing of the bars, the climbing room and the swimming pools, the daily death toll which parades again, the smiles disappeared behind the masks.

And to make matters worse, this gray weather….

It will not have escaped you, this beginning of October stacks more the flowers of evil of a Baudelairean spleen than the classic fallen leaves of autumn.

And we are not the only ones.

According to a WHO investigation released on Monday, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted or interrupted essential mental health services in 93% of the world's countries, while at the same time the demand for care has increased.

The organization also deplores a lack of funding for these services, knowing that only 2% of the health budget would be devoted to them.

Past problems and adaptation

Viviane Kovess-Masféty, epidemiologist and psychiatrist at the University of Paris, tempers the results for France.

For her, if mental health services have indeed been disrupted, going more through teleconsultation and phone calls, and hospitalizing less for fear of Covid-19 infection, it is not necessarily bad: "Institutionalize less patients, leaving more room for mutual aid and their autonomy can be good things.

“So much so that research projects are currently being developed to see if these new organizations are interesting and effective even in a context outside the coronavirus.

Obviously, she qualifies: “Of course the coronavirus crisis has worsened some cases, and that many could not be treated properly, but the finding is not only negative.

As in any crisis, the changing habits and changes have also brought positive.

"

For Livia Velpry, sociologist and specialist in mental health issues, “psychiatry has had difficulties for several years, the coronavirus crisis has only made them resurface in greater numbers.

But as with the public hospital, the problem was clearly there before.

"

Towards more patients?

Above all, Viviane Kovess-Masféty warns against the comparison between the general morale currently weakened and mental health services.

“With the coronavirus, the French suffer more from psychological distress, they have more mild symptoms of depression and anxiety.

But that is to be unhappy, and psychiatry is not about treating unhappy people only.

"

The psychiatrist recognizes that the increase in psychological distress on such a large scale of the population will inevitably lead to the switch, in some, towards more serious psychiatric forms.

"But the effect will certainly be temporary", as in other past traumas in populations.

Such as September 11 - where an increase in psychological distress was observed before disappearing three months later - or SARS in the early 2000s, where “several studies in affected Asian countries show that after 'one year, the mental level of the population had returned to normal, ”she says.

Insecurity, a risk factor for mental illness

A major nuance, the coronavirus brings a fear that is perhaps even more important than the disease: that of a socialo-economic climate totally ravaged by drastic health measures.

In addition to the stress generated, this new precariousness is not without consequences: “Material and social precariousness is a clear risk factor for mental illness.

"

So what to do?

Like Viviane Kovess-Masféty, Livia Velpry is keen to distinguish between mental cases before the coronavirus and the rest of the population.

For the latter, “there are definitely mental health problems, but not illnesses.

Depression, even mild or moderate depression, stress… This requires an offer of listening and support rather than care.

"

As for the first, can we hope that, as with the public hospital, the crisis reveals the difficulties of psychiatry and that there are more resources allocated?

Livia Velpry is not very optimistic on the subject: “The problems of mental disorders and their treatment are always considered last, so I have little hope.

Worse still, the services in difficulty are closing in on themselves even more, reinforcing the omerta.

"

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