Mental health concerns and their management among individuals reaching out to the national psychosocial helpline in India during COVID-19

Mental health concerns and their management among individuals reaching out to the national psychosocial helpline in India during COVID-19

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Background: COVID-19 has affected the whole world.Apart from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on physical earthbath facial wipes health, there has been a significant impact on the mental health of the individuals.To address these mental health concerns, our institute had started a 24/7 national telephonic helpline to enable distressed individuals to reach out and seek help or assistance.Aims: In this article, the authors described the details of 126 tier-2 call backs and the types of psychiatric disorders that were catered to, between March 29, 2020 and May 31, 2020.

Methodology: Descriptive analysis was done.Results: The concerns were characterized into five groups: exacerbation of preexisting mental and physical illness (30.9%); known case of mental or physical illness (19%); COVID related mental health concerns (22.2%); administrative or logistic issues (7.

1%); new-onset mental health-related concerns or illnesses (15.9%).Majority of the calls (44.4%) were addressed by the second-tier mental health professionals (MHPs) (psychiatrists).

Thirty-one click here percent were referred to the local medical or psychiatric services; 9.5% to the 3rd tier MHPs; 9% were connected to the treating psychiatrist or neurologist in the hospital; and 1.6% were referred to emergency services in the hospital.Conclusions: Using teleservices to address such a huge mental health crisis can be a way ahead to tackle this parallel menace brought about by COVID-19.

However, the effectiveness of these helplines needs to be assessed and monitored at frequent intervals.