The outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, which began in December 2019, evolved eventually to become a global pandemic. The pandemic, along with the obvious health-related impact, also poses a serious threat to the psychological well-being of individuals and has resulted in significant behavioural changes. The enormity of living in isolation, changes in our daily lives, job loss, financial hardship and grief over the death of loved ones has the potential to affect the mental health and well-being of many.
Fig: Psychosocial relationship between the disease, health care providers, government and population.
Psychosocial and Behavioural impact of COVID-19 on Different Strata of Society
Challenges Associated with Psychosocial Well-being during COVID-19
This unpredictable, fast spreading infectious disease has been causing universal awareness, anxiety and distress, all of which according to WHO are natural psychological responses to the randomly changing condition. Adverse psychosomatic outcomes among common people are nevertheless expected to increase significantly due to the pandemic itself and due to constant flow of readily available information and reinforced messaging obtained via online social networking services of almost all forms. Consequently, rapidly expanding mass hysteria and panic regarding COVID-19 may beget enduring psychological and mental health problems in public from all the socioeconomic domains, which could potentially be even more detrimental in the long run than the virus itself. In this light some important challenges are following:
Coping with Psychosocial and Behavioural Issues during COVID-19
Considering that the current situation has taken a heavy toll on most peoples’ psychosocial well- being and addressing the situation is the need of the hour, the WHO released some psychosocial and behavioural considerations that should be followed during this crisis. Some important ones are as follows:
Conclusion
COVID-19 carries significant psychosocial and mental health hazards. There is a paucity of research addressing the psychosocial well-being and behavioural issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the mortality and morbidity statistics are reaching new peaks every day, isolation and lockdown states are getting prolonged, recreational opportunities for people are lessened and the financial crisis is building in, mental health issues are likely to grow exponentially. There is a need to understand the psychosocial and behavioural perspectives of COVID-19 and delineate possible measures to cope with the pandemic for its effective management.