Mental Health: The Real Second Wave of the Pandemic?
As speculation continues over whether a sharp escalation in the scale of global coronavirus cases is imminent, another ‘second wave’ — a mental health crisis brought about by the onset of the pandemic — is already underway.
It’s a crisis that, according to The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), will magnify the suffering of those already hardest hit by the pandemic, including the elderly, lower socioeconomic groups and frontline healthcare workers — and one that, here in the US, threatens to overwhelm our already fragile mental health system.
So far, we’ve been calculating COVID-19 casualties in terms of infections and fatalities. But the toll exerted by the virus on our individual and collective mental health is equally devastating. Feelings of anxiety and isolation triggered by the proliferation of (mis)information and by widespread enforced distancing and quarantining measures have amplified physical health consequences, at the same time preventing people from accessing the support networks upon which they normally depend.
It’s a tragedy of historic dimensions and we can expect its shockwaves to resonate for years to come.
The impact is already being widely felt. A June 2020 survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that more than 40 percent of respondents reported ‘at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition’, with a tenth of those polled admitting to suicidal thoughts. It’s a trend affecting many countries. Figures from the NHS in the UK show that while COVID-related absences in May this year accounted for 341,000 full-time equivalent sick days, substantially more days were lost to mental illness during the same period — approximately 50% more, in fact.
Based on previous clinical research conducted during pandemics, mental health experts believe it’s likely that tens of millions of Americans — those who’ve suffered from COVID-19, as well as bereaved families and beleaguered health care workers — will experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
And yet, the conversation in the business community over the last few months has largely centered around the material changes organizations can make to support their employees’ return to work. Ensuring that workplaces have excellent air quality, enhanced cleaning protocols and physical distancing guidelines is important but shouldn’t distract leaders from tending to the inner state of the people inside those workspaces. As leaders, we have to be present to the mental and emotional impacts of the pandemic and foster the needs of our people. As with buildings and deferred maintenance, the longer a mental health crisis goes unheeded, the more complex and costly the resolution will be.
At IWBI, one of the experts we’ve been collaborating closely with on this topic is author and futurist, Rex Miller. His latest publication: ‘Return to Work: A Leader’s Guide to Avoiding the Mental Health Crisis’ offers practical and actionable guidance for supporting employees in the short term, while banking greater resilience for the long term.
Rex’s view that COVID-19 trauma is piling pressure on a population already beset by chronic health conditions is key to understanding its cumulative effect on mental health:
‘In the US we’re already on an unsustainable path from a health management perspective — 60 percent of the adult population has some form of chronic disease. The single biggest root cause of all this ill health is stress, a factor that’s multiplied massively in 2020. We estimate that around 90 million people in this country are currently experiencing Level 1 or 2 trauma as a result of the pandemic.’
It’s a crisis in the making. We already know that mental health plays a key part in individual — and community — well-being, which is why it’s a focus in our WELL Mind concept.
One’s mental health state is not fixed: it can be impacted — for good or bad — by work and social conditions, environmental conditions, lifestyle and health behaviors. From a corporate perspective, mental health care is often seen as outside the remit of employers — viewed as a nice-to-have benefit, rather than a bottom-line essential. As the evidence mounts, though, CEOs are realizing that investing in the mental health and resilience of their employees is more than altruistic; it directly impacts productivity and profitability.
When organizations put employee health front and center, they do right by their business by doing right by their people. In this moment, we have the opportunity to show up for other people in ways that may not have seemed important pre-pandemic. Checking in on your colleagues with a simple ‘Are you OK?’ feels like a good place to start.
Rachel Hodgdon is President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a public benefit corporation with a mission to improve human health and well-being through the built environment. She is a frequent guest lecturer and instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Health and the Global Environment and has lectured at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, the University of Connecticut School of Business, and Tufts University and other institutions.
