Behavioral Health Corp Needed to Battle Pandemic of Despair

Almost half of young adults are experiencing mental health symptoms, per a recent study conducted in 8 countries. 40% of 18 to 24 year-olds “reported feeling sadness, distress or hopelessness, as well as unwanted, strange and obsessive thoughts.” This, unfortunately, correlates with what many of us predicted in the early days of COVID-19, using terms like an approaching behavioral health “tsunami” or the “pandemic of despair” I’ve noted in earlier posts. This crisis is no longer on its way, it’s here. And most countries, including the United States where 1 in 4 young adults have reported considering suicide, are unprepared to provide population-level interventions.  The isolation of COVID-19 has hit 18-24 year-olds particularly hard, due to “lost economic opportunities, missed traditional milestones and forfeited relationships at a pivotal time for forming identity.”

Massive investment is needed immediately — offering the free training of peers to provide support through warm lines and online apps, paying the tuition or retraining of those willing to serve on a “Behavioral Health Corp” as social workers and therapists, ramping up peer-to-peer support programs to make them free and available in all states, as well as behavioral health screening in all primary care and emergency room settings — with immediate warm hand-offs to low to no-cost services.

Read the full report of Sapien Labs "Mental Health State of the World 2020" findings here.