COVID 19 and Emotional Health: PSYCHIATRISTS Views and contributions -April 6,2020

During the last few days, mental health professionals have shared their experiences and concerns about the emotional health of the population exposed to the pandemic.

The full articles, audios and videos are posted in the SENSE MAKING section of the blogpost.

In addition, a number of professionals have shared their suggestions for emotional health as audios and videos. These are not comprehensive list and I know that there are many more such activities. It is hoped that making available in this blog would help wider availability.

Articles
In an editorial in the Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health by Professor Santosh Chaturvedi(http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40737-020-00162-z.
Prof.Chaturvedi, points out,
‘ The philosophy of mental health rehabilitation focuses on helping the person deal with their social skills deficits through social skills training and encouraging social interactions and reducing social distances. The home quarantine and closing down of day care facilities is likely to have a negative impact on their clinical outcome with a risk of aggravation of symptoms and even a relapse’.

In an another Editorial in Journal Indian Association Child Adolescent Mental Health( 2020;16(2):1-12)Drs. Tanu Gupta and Naresh Nebhinani , titled, Building Psychological Immunity in Children and Adolescents, cover the subject extensively. The editorial covers the social changes, measures that can be utilised for building psychological immunity. This comprehensive article is very timely for the current stressful situation.

Article from Kashmir titled ‘Covid-19: Mental health, fear and anxiety by Dr.Sheikh Shoib’
(http://risingkashmir.com/news/covid-19-mental-health-fear-and-anxiety) cover the emotional health impact of the pandemic.
‘Corona virus is not just threatening our physical health, but our mental health too. It definitely has an impact on your mental health and can cause anxiety and fear. It is important to focus on self-care and also mental health support’ .He shares many self-care skills for emotional health.

Dr.Vikram Patel Interview by Sheela Bhatt in Rediffnews.Com (Apr 2, 2020) under the title
‘Begin a gradual lifting of the lockdown’ focusses on the impact of lockdown on the poor and marginalised groups. He calls early resumption of economic activities so that the vulnerable groups are protected.’

Audio Interviews:
Dr.Lakshmi Vijayakumar (The Hindu, April 4m, 2020)