Mental health workers confirm devastating effects of COVID-19 as Victoria endures long-term coronavirus blockade

Joy always remembers the moment the Prime Minister of Victoria announced that the state would enter the blockade of the fourth stage coronavirus.

Lifeline telephone counselors worked for the Mental Health agency’s South Yarra Call Center when Daniel Andrews told the Victorians that he would be subject to the strictest lockdown measures Australians have seen.

The phone started ringing immediately and didn’t stop overnight.

People were anxious and confused.

They were particularly concerned about their finances and their work.

“You really felt lost.”

The “very serious uncertainties” felt by some callers that night were “triggering people who tended towards thought of suicide or self-harm anyway.”

Joy started volunteering at Lifeline 14 years ago after losing her family in a miserable situation.

But this year’s support service sets it apart from the rest.

“The stress and anxiety people are experiencing is clearly increasing, especially social distance, isolation, isolation, and lack of connection with family, friends, and community,” she says.

“And the changing reality that makes the ability to control choices very difficult.”

Calls have increased by 25% in this year’s lifeline. The cause is a forest fire and then a coronavirus.

The second wave killed hundreds and killed thousands in Victoria, leaving victims of mental health.

Lifeline saw a 22% increase in calls from the state when the Victorian government blocked some public housing towers.

Calls from the Victorian era surged 30% when the Stage 4 restrictions were announced.

Many tired Victorian health professionals have called.

They are experiencing burnout and fatigue, emphasizing that they can’t miss work, says Joy.

He also expressed concern about the possibility of unknowingly being infected by the virus.

Lifeline has also heard from people who have caught the virus that they feel they are blamed for a pandemic.

“They report they’ve been treated really badly,” Joy said.

And many Victorian people reported feeling a lack of support from the rest of the country, and many were plagued by messages they accused of a second outbreak.

Many young people stand at the brunt of school, college and work

In southeastern Melbourne, psychologist Sharon Patton operates headspace youth mental health services through a pandemic.

Knox’s offices are located between the major suburban hubs of Ringwood, Bollonia and Glen Waverley, and the more rural Dandenong Mountains.

Estimated referrals for youth admitted to the hospital’s emergency department due to a mental health crisis have risen by 50%.

According to Sharon, many young people have long waited to seek support for a pandemic. By the time they reach out, many are in danger.

It’s a statewide problem.

Victoria’s government said in early August, a week after the Stage 4 blockade, the number of young people dispatched to the emergency department for deliberate self-harm was 33% higher than at the same time in 2019. Revealed that it has increased.

During this second lockdown, Sharon noticed an overall 20% increase in people in need.

Many of them are 12th graders who have a hard time dealing with what happened in their last year.

“They continue to be engaged and really struggle to stay motivated.”

University students are also worried about their future. The placement was canceled, the graduation was delayed, and the prospect of employment was undermined.

And it seems that more young people are dealing with domestic violence and domestic violence.

“While there were problems before, whether it’s mental health, family conflicts, or tensions, these blockades really exacerbated those problems and revealed them,” Sharon says.

She says she misses the fun, laughter and playtime that many young people will have in everyday life, and it’s really important to add a light moment to each day.

Watching and drinking alcohol is becoming a daily norm for some

Shalini Arunogiri, a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction and women’s mental health, noticed a huge difference between the first and second wave blockades.

“What we really saw in Lockdown 1 was that people were actually doing adrenaline, which was this kind of reaction to intense stress,” she explains.

“It’s a situation no one has ever experienced, so I saw this enormous amount of energy.

For some people, poor coping mechanisms such as bulimia are habitual.

“I also think alcohol plays a big role in some people, drug use, and a lot of screen time,” she says.

Dr Arnogiri says the Helpline at Turning Point, the Melbourne Addiction Center where she works, has seen a slight increase in the number of people seeking help. But she thinks it will rise in the future, as the pandemic brings together the underlying factors of addiction, such as unemployment, housing problems, and trauma.

She is worried about the effects of pandemics on women.

The large number of women who lose their jobs, work at the forefront of health, and undertake full-time care at home means that the pandemic has a particular impact on women’s mental health.

Dr Arnogiri says the government needs to develop policies and fund women in mind.

Thousands more suicides are expected without intervention

Ian Hickie of the Brain and Mind Center at the University of Sydney is working on complex modeling to predict the mental health effects of pandemics across Australia.

He says it has created a “full storm of risk” for many.

Victoria’s second blockade made things worse, says Hicky.

“It has contributed to a further significant increase in mental health issues, which would inevitably lead to emergency department presentations, suicidal behaviour, and potentially increase the risk of death from suicide.”

Data released last week by Victorian coroners show No suicidal spikes have been seen yet..

But Hicky said his modeling predictions indicate that suicide deaths are likely to begin to increase later this year.

His latest modeling shows that Australia is at risk of losing more than 4,000 lives over the next five years due to a pandemic, and in the worst case more than 7,000 lives.

But that is not the complete conclusion. Hicky says the government can work to reduce the number of lives lost, just as the government fought to minimize the number of deaths from coronaviruses.

“You can’t look at the numbers and say “nothing to do”,” he says.

Currently Australia’s most important mental health care program is JobKeeper, Must extend after March next year..

As the model suggests, maintaining it until May 2022 could reduce suicide deaths in Australia by about 7%.

It shows that such a move has an even greater impact on young people, reducing mental health, self-harm and suicide emergency department visits by about 9%.

Professor Hicky also wants the government to bring young, unworked adults back into the education system and focus on enhancing the capacity of the mental health care system.

Pandemics can be a “breakpoint” to help transform the system

Martin Foley, Victoria’s Minister for Mental Health, is leading the state’s response to the crisis.

He knows that some critics argue that Victoria shouldn’t go as far as the coronavirus limits because of its impact on mental health.

But he says the government addresses both health threats.

“We need to balance them. [mental health] “The impact on the real world of people who die from unmeasurable viruses so far,” he says.

The minister himself believes that the system “did not fit the purpose” before the pandemic. But he is optimistic that significant improvements have been made.

He said his government has added $200 million to mental health funding and is excited about the federal decision to fund a new mental health clinic across the state.

But the system is already strained by additional demand, so the challenge is challenging.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says his government has added $500 million to funding for mental health services and suicide prevention since the beginning of the pandemic.

He says the federal government recognizes the importance of employment and income in mental health.