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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Aug 2020
Defining COVID-19 as a Disaster Helps Guide Public Mental Health Policy.
- Abdulaziz Alkhayyat and Kishan Pankhania.
- Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK.
- Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2020 Aug 1; 14 (4): e44-e45.
AbstractThe coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to be a devastating chapter in history. The consequences of the pandemic unfold daily and they extend beyond physical health. Current research suggests that it is a public mental health crisis. With regard to the physical effects of COVID-19, policy-makers have drawn from past experiences, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2003, to craft unique responses. A similar approach must be taken to address the mental health effects of the pandemic. Because COVID-19 can fit the definitions of a mental health disaster, it can be addressed using the principles of disaster mental health management. This letter to the editor presents arguments for defining COVID-19 as a mental health disaster, the challenges facing policy-makers in addressing it as such, and calls upon researchers to fill this gap in the literature.
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