by Mary Elizabeth Lonergan
A ISSUE 2 2021 | CSG CAPITOL IDEAS
s state legislators work to better combat COVID-19 with vaccine rollouts, some focus is shifting toward healing the mental health toll the pandemic created.
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“To me, it’s been something that was ignored,” said Delaware state Rep. David Bentz. “Now we’ve seen, luckily, a real change in people’s thought process. Mental health is part of complete health and we need to get the message out that it is OK to seek help.” Nationally, Americans have struggled with their mental health since before the arrival of COVID-19, but in many cases the virus exacerbated their suffering. Pew Research Center found that 33% of Americans have experienced high levels of psychological distress at some point during the extended period of social distancing and isolation in the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. That same survey found that 55% of adults who describe their financial situation as poor have experienced high levels of distress, as have half of those who report having a disability that keeps them from fully participating in activities.
The American Psychological Association Stress in America 2020 survey found 78% of adults count the coronavirus pandemic as a major source of stress in their life; 49% say their behavior has been negatively affected. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed say the pandemic is the lowest point in our nation’s history. “Increasingly we referred to it as a society in despair,” said Dr. Wayne Lindstrom, vice president of Business Development and Consulting at RI International, an organization delivering mental health and substance use solutions and care. “We had the opioid crisis, increasing suicide rates, people feeling isolated and cut off, and that was all before COVID. If that’s the context before COVID, it wouldn’t be much of a leap to think COVID has exacerbated this — and it has.” Vermont state Rep. Anne Donahue, a mental health survivor and advocate, agrees. “The most significant issues are anxiety and depression stemming from the degree of isolation that people are experiencing,” she said. “People need people: it’s true for recovery, which comes about most significantly through support of peers, but the reverse is true when we are cut off
