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The social isolation in which many people have lived for almost a month due to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus can accentuate depression and other emotional difficulties in a society hit by everyday violence and lead to a pandemic of mental problems, they warned this Sunday. health experts.
For the Colombian Psychiatric Association, in a country like Colombia, where the levels of mistreatment, domestic violence and femicides are very high, the quarantine in many cases accentuates already existing problems, so much so that the Government launched campaigns to prevent increase the cases of domestic assaults in this period.
“There are already many studies of this type that indicate that after an emergency like this that we are experiencing, in societies a second pandemic is coming, which is the mental health pandemic”, Efe the president of the Colombian Association of Psychiatry, Astrid Arrieta Molinares.
For Arrieta, coordinator of the Psychiatry and Psychopathology program at the Free University of Barranquilla, “Currently 40% of the population is more likely to have some type of mental health-related problem, and the number of depression-related illnesses is going to double.”
In his opinion, there are groups that may be more affected, such as people who already had a mental illness and have not been able to continue their treatment due to the quarantine that began on March 25 and should end on April 27, and those over 70 years, those who have more strict confinement for being a more vulnerable group to COVID-19.
“Added to them are those who must mourn over the loss of a family member or loved one, those currently confined because they are suffering from the same disease and health personnel with high levels of work, which in Colombia is aggravated because they do not there are biosecurity measures and labor links, “he said.
Emotional, physical and psychological effects
Regarding the problems derived from isolation, the Colombian School of Rehabilitation (ECR) warns that it is necessary to become aware of the emotional, physical and mental impact that quarantine can cause.
“The coronavirus not only impacts the respiratory system due to the infection of the disease itself, it can also have repercussions in the emotional, mental and physical health spheres of people”Goe Rojas, rector of the ECR, an institution dedicated to training professionals in the areas of health and rehabilitation in Colombia, told Efe.
Rojas maintains that although the current situation limits people’s actions, it is necessary to work for “normalization” by “The establishment of routines, that even in isolation, allow us to comply with the schedules and habits that we normally execute”.
“Just getting up early, getting ready and doing activities as if we were not in quarantine, will help us to be physically better in our immune system to be able to assume that, if we catch and get sick, our body has better defenses”he added.
Professional support
Concerned about the mental health of Colombians at this stage, 30 volunteers, health professionals, decided to make themselves available to all those who require help or guidance during the quarantine.
Through different social networks, with the number #ContigoEnLaDistancia, this group of experts offers free professional help and shares tools to help manage thoughts and emotions.
Integration therapist and “coach” Yaneth Linares, who leads these volunteers, says that initiatives of this type have already been implemented in Europe, where young people help older adults, and in some Latin American countries, such as Argentina.
“We started by spreading the initiative through WhatsApp groups and then we have made ourselves known through other means, so we are currently receiving calls not only from Colombia, but even from abroad”Linares explained.
Regarding the motivations of those who are part of the group, Linares is blunt: “Here what there is is an act of love, of offering our experience and putting it at the service of those who currently need it.”
In Chile there is also the initiative www.psicologíachile.cl, where several psychologists attend online and with the first free consultation.
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