Pandemic-related mental health issues disproportionately affect those who experience racial discrimination and class oppression. Also young people, essential workers and unpaid caregivers.
Certain groups appear to be disproportionately affected by increases in behavioral health issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
45% of individuals in a household that experienced job loss had symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder compared with 27% of those in households without job loss.
44% of individuals with less than a high school education exhibited symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder compared with 29% of individuals with a bachelor's degree or higher.
Over 50% of individuals making less than $25,000 annually exhibited symptoms of one or both mental health conditions compared with 35% of those making $50,000-$75,000 and 23% of those with an income above $150,000.
At least one adverse mental or behavioral health symptom was reported by more than half of respondents who were aged 18-24 (74.9%) and 25-44 (51.9%), as well as those who were essential workers (54.0%) or unpaid caregivers for adults (66.6%).
The percentage of respondents who reported having seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days (10.7%) was significantly higher among those aged 18-24 (25.5%), Hispanic (18.6) and Black respondents (15.1), unpaid caregivers for adults (30.7%), and essential workers (21.7%).
Behavioral Health During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Overview and Issues for Congress, CRS Reports and Briefs, July 1, 2021
While it’s widely understood that high covid infection rates are related to a rise in mental health issues, Yale researchers have argued that the relationship goes in the other direction as well. Communities with poor mental health have more covid infections.
Immune systems that are already compromised by the stress of the pandemic and social inequities may also be vulnerable to infection.
“prior poor mental health at the county level had a positive and significant association with COVID-19 infection rates.”
Yusuf Ransome DrPH , Hui Luan PhD , Insang Song MA , David A. Fiellin MD , Sandro Galea MD, DrPH , Association of Poor Mental Health Days With COVID-19 Infection Rates in the U.S., American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2021), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.08.032
CT mental health facilities and programs for youth are overwhelmed, causing extended stays in emergency rooms and non-mental health facilities.
An 11-year-old girl “caught trying to stick a sharp object into an electrical socket at school saying ‘I just want to die’ …was taken by ambulance to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, where she waited with other children in a crowded hallway of the emergency department for about four hours before she could be moved to a room in the unit. She waited there six days, with a psychologist coming in every day to check on her, before a bed opened up at Hartford HealthCare’s IOL.
Increasing numbers of school-aged children are showing up at Connecticut emergency departments — many of them suicidal, out of control, or with hard-to-treat eating disorders — leading to an overflow of young patients in emergency departments with limited bed space and a long wait for inpatient or community-based care elsewhere, hospital officials said.
‘We’re just seeing this whole systemic back up.’ Pediatric patients at both Connecticut Children’s and Yale New Haven are waiting in the emergency department for several days — an average of seven days at Connecticut Children’s in April, hospital officials said. Hospital officials explained that most of the wait is due to other facilities and programs that normally handle children with these needs in the communities being overwhelmed.
New Haven Register May 25, 2021
“A pediatric mental health crisis the scale of which has never been seen”
“Pediatric behavioral health was a major problem before COVID — before the pandemic — but it has really exploded,” said Cynthia Sparer, executive director of Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital.
The reason for the shortage in beds is due to the ongoing pediatric mental health crisis across the country.
Not only are there not nearly enough beds at in-patient psychiatric facilities to accommodate the need, but kids are showing more severe symptoms.
The situation is so dire nationwide that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association in October declared a national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health.
According to those organizations, between March and October 2020, the percentage of emergency department visits for children with mental health emergencies rose by 24 percent for children ages 5 to 11 and 31 percent for children ages 12 to 17.
Yale has a total of 40 beds for kids in need of acute psychiatric care, according to Sparer. “Those 40 beds are filled every day — filled,” she said. It’s not just that there are more children in need of psychiatric care. “The kids are sicker.”
“It's not only the numbers, but the numbers of children who are coming in with acute conditions — severe depression, suicidal either ideations or actual attempts,” she said. “Out of the total number of children being seen, fully 40 percent are moderate to high risk for suicide.”
Sparer said she’s worked in children's hospitals since the 1980s. While the availability of mental health treatment for people of any age has always been a problem, “I've never, in all those years, seen it like this,” she said.
New Haven Register December 13, 2021
Mobile Crisis Reduces Visits to Overloaded Emergency Rooms - Essential for Treating Young People with Mental Health Issues in New Pandemic Reality
“Certainly there are kids who are at imminent risk to themselves or others who need to go to the emergency department for an evaluation to be considered for inpatient admissions, but there are a lot of kids also that can benefit from having contact with Mobile Crisis and then receiving services in their home or in their community,”
Implemented by the Department of Children and Families, mobile crisis is a statewide emergency psychiatric resource residents can reach by calling 2-1-1. It provides services like psychiatric assessment, behavioral management services, substance abuse screening and referrals to services for any family with a child in crisis.
In 2018, the University of Connecticut School of Social Work released a report that found that, over an 18-month time period, there was a 25 percent decrease in emergency department visits among children when Mobile Crisis was utilized.
Last month, 2-1-1 and mobile crisis received 1,363 calls. Of those calls, 1,037 or 76.1 percent were handled by mobile crisis, according to a monthly report published by CHDI.
“[Mobile Crisis] are incredibly resourceful, they’re incredibly helpful, they can help parents triage whether or not they need to go to the emergency department or not,” Bechtel said. “We’re always here, we’ll always be open, we will never turn anybody away, ever. But I think a lot of our parents are realizing what the ED looks like now is much different than what the ED looked like six months ago or a year ago.”
New Haven Register May 25, 2021
Higher salaries for mental health care workers needed along with stronger partnerships between schools and mobile crisis teams.
“Behavioral health care providers, child advocates and representatives from state agencies say there is a widespread surge in demand for urgent pediatric behavioral health care across Connecticut, a crisis they say is exacerbated by insufficient staffing levels.
To address the crisis that has left dozens of children waiting for mental health care at Children’s and other hospitals, experts say Connecticut must:
Hartford Courant October 14, 2021
Poll shows decline in mental health in Connecticut across the board but more pronounced among women and young adults.
“A new poll from Sacred Heart University found nearly one-third of Connecticut residents report a decline in their mental health due to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on daily living.
Asked to choose from a variety of ways COVID-19 has impacted their quality of life, 31% of respondents said their mental health had declined. The numbers were greater for women (35.3%) and people ages 18-34 (39.9%).”
Harford Courant April 14, 2021
Unmet need for counseling and therapy among adults with symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder during the coronavirus pandemic in Connecticut��Percent of Adults with Symptoms of Anxiety and/or Depressive Disorder�Percent of Adults with Symptoms of Anxiety and/or Depressive Disorder Who Reported an Unmet Need for Counseling and Therapy���
211 Usage and the Mental Health Crisis in Connecticut
The coronavirus pandemic has unleashed a mental health crisis across Connecticut. Mental health call requests to 211 have increased from 165,411 in the 21 months before the pandemic, to 198,015 during the 21 months since the pandemic began in mid-March 2020. This is a 20% increase.
This an acceleration of a general, worsening trend in collective mental health. Call requests to 211 for mental health were 86,672 in 2018, 94,367 in 2019, and 114,651 in 2020. This is a 33% increase over two years.
Data on call requests for the major mental health categories are troubling. For Substance Abuse and Addictions there were 11,146 calls in 2018, 11,979 in 2019, and 16,535 in 2020. An increase of 33% over two years. For Crisis Intervention and Suicide there were 32,342 calls in 2018, 33,186 in 2019, and 35,992 in 2020. An increase of 11% over two years. And for the broad category of Mental Health Services there were 41,441 calls in 2018, 47,701 in 2019, and 59,953 in 2020. An increase of 45% over two years.
Mental Health - All calls to 211 Connecticut by year
Mental Health – All calls to 211 Connecticut pre-pandemic and during the pandemic
Mental Health - All calls to 211 in Connecticut major categories by year
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