Mental health and Covid-19: 11 thousand operations from March to today

05/03/2020 Health



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There is an oasis, where restlessness has exploded without being dramatically affected by the cuts that over the years have weakened, if not dismantledthe territorial public health. Physical places, and not only, where health continues to occur, even if it may seem disrespectful to a triplicate of the anxiety and depression that spread like a forest fire in all sectors of the population. In some, more.

From the end of February until last week ai mental health services of the Department of Asst Spedali Civili have turned 3,500 people for a total of eleven thousand interventions. “A very large number that measures the amount of territorial services that have been present, compared to a slight decrease in the number of hospitalizations in all psychiatric services in our province,” explains psychiatrist Antonio Vita, director of the Department. Remembering that psychosocial centers have always kept their doors open, even on the most difficult days ofcoronavirus emergency, respecting the safety instructions.

«It was fundamental for all of us ensure continuity of performance and, beyond the physical places, we have introduced the important novelty of telematic activities and telephone contacts, a kind of telemedicine. They worked, and it was not obvious, so much so that in forty days we had six thousand contacts with patients and relatives. “

Important numbers, also because mental illness in our province is the third cause in years of life lost in good health after cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumors. And it is the main cause of disability, responsible for 30-40% of the days of chronic absence from work. As of now, however, the numbers are underestimated. Dramatic signs have already been seen, averaging two suicide attempts per night in the darkest phase of the collective drama. Vita explains: “The Sars-Cov-2 pandemic is not just an infectious, pulmonary, or cardiorespiratory emergency, but it affects mental health directly and grows over time. We have seen some things, we will see others because we know, from previous pandemics in other areas of the planet, that there are a significant number of categories at higher risk ».

No, there is no need to keep the focus on these categories. But it is unethical to turn them off. There are those who had Covid-19 and remained in the hospital. in serious condition. He has now been discharged, but the traumatic experience of illness, loneliness, and intensive care is not easy to overcome. There are the healed who will keep, now it is safe, a physical traceas well as emotional, of what they lived. In the immediate term, they fall prey to anxiety, then develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Professor Vita: “It is estimated that it can affect 8 to 10% of these categories, therefore, five / six times more than those who suffer from it now.”

There is a band of health workers those who have followed the acute stage of Covid-19 and have experienced extreme experiences: in addition to stress disorder, many develop a true refusal to continue your work. They sleep little and continue to have excruciating scenes before their eyes. Another “category” looks at the many who have been isolated at home in the uncertainty of being positive and in the absence of adequate medical support. Finally, do not forget the general population on which the uncertainty of the future weighs, which is accompanied by a still present fear of contagion and disease added to pain, for those who have suffered losses, of not being able to accompany their loved one, a fundamental element to start reworking the duel.