AMADEM: A year of pandemic and mental health

Wednesday 7th April 2021 | ESTHER ESCRIVÀ MONZÓ; translation MIKE SMITH

The Confederación SALUD MENTAL ESPAÑA has launched a campaign to highlight the deterioration of the country’s mental health after a year of pandemic and to demand an improvement in care, especially in the most vulnerable groups.

According to a CIS survey, the percentage of lower-class people who have had their mental and emotional health affected by the ongoing crisis is almost double that of those who identify as upper class. It also highlights poorer mental health among young people, women, and people with disabilities.

In Europe, according to the WHO, a third of the adult population have reported anxiety problems, a figure that reaches 1 in every 2 in the case of younger people. Thus, the Confederación has urged Europe to get involved and recommend that Member States prioritize investment in mental health care.

A year has passed since the Spanish Government decreed the state of alarm due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we were not yet fully aware, one of the hardest stages for people in recent history began, not only for Spain, but for humanity, with everyone, literally, locked up at home.

During these twelve months, uncertainty, fear, deaths, job losses, confinement itself and uninterrupted coexistence, or loneliness, are some of the situations that have reduced the mental health of the population, especially in the people with fewer economic resources.

This has been revealed in data recently published by the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS). The prescription for the consumption of psychotropic drugs has also increased, highlighting an important difference between the upper class, which was 3.6%, compared to 9.8% for the lower class.

AMADEM has joined the demands of the Confederación SALUD MENTAL ESPAÑA to improving the care network by investing in mental health, since this pandemic has shown that it is the weakest point of the health system and with greater vulnerability, especially for certain disadvantaged groups.

Esther Escrivà Monzó

Psychologist and coordinator of AMADEM

Click below to read the original article in Spanish on Xàbia AL DÍA