#WDD #FactsForSolidarity
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“Very soon lockdown will be causing more deaths than the virus.”
“To deal with stressors, people may resort to negative ways of coping, including alcohol, drugs.”
“The pandemic has facilitated the emergence of new addictive behaviours.”
“Alcoholism. Drug overdoses. Suicide. These ‘deaths of despair’ could reach 150,000 in the US alone if more isn’t done to provide access to mental health care including addiction treatment.”
“I am in lockdown with both parents who drink too much and my dad is more aggressive.”
Staff on the covid frontline are a “ticking timebomb of PTSD”.
“For some, the delay in getting treatment may have been fatal.”
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Get the most updated, comprehensive research:
THE QUESTIONS
To raise awareness which can then translate into effective action, can stakeholder organisations universally agree on the following statements?
Do we ourselves agree that these are the statements which will lead to best-practice action plans?
What ‘vehicle’ or forum can facilitate discussion and consensus?
DISCUSSION: DO WE AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS?
- More people are using addictive / psychoactive substances more often and in higher doses during lockdown.
- Existing mental-health issues can be worsened by using psychoactive substances.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder has been triggered in some people during lockdown, be it from the coronavirus (Covid-19) health imperative or the resultant lockdown itself.
- PTSD concerns apply particularly to frontline health workers; they must be helped.
- Children have also been negatively affected by lockdown.
- PTSD can lead to later addiction / dependencies as a coping mechanism.
- As the prevalence of addiction / dependency, PTSD and related mental-health problems has increased, so has the need for services to address them.
- Instead of increasing capacity, providers of addiction / dependency services and providers of mental-health services have their treatment capacity and income restricted by the lockdown.
- Treatment providers should be given priority access to government-approved Covid-19 testing kits so that patients in need of help can be admitted to their services.
- Some providers of the above services have had to close during lockdown.
- Donations to mental-health charities have plummeted, reducing capacity to assist.
- Stakeholder organisations need to work together to increase care and capacity.
- For cost-efficacy and clinical-efficacy, stakeholder organisations should together formulate an action plan, based on the above recognised needs.
- If these statements can be agreed by relevant stakeholders, they could form a framework of goals to accelerate action plans.
The DBRR report provides 147 research and references which led to the statements on this page.
