Mental health missing from Coronavirus response

Posted October 2020

By Daryna Bosyuk

Staff Editor

In a recent Vanity Fair piece, The Forgotten F-word in the Pandemic, Monica Lewinsky brings up the idea that mental health was missing from the Coronavirus response, and I agree with her on this point.

Physical health is important, but it shouldn't have been the only focus in the response team of this administration. As Lewinsky said, there should have been a person briefing the people about what’s normal to feel, and how to deal with their emotions. Teenage suicide rates have skyrocketed in the last 10 years. To be exact, suicide rates for people ages 10-24 have increased by 60% (USA Today). With a pandemic on our hands and with all social gatherings advised against, the suicide rates easily rose among teens. Without proper mental health advisory, suicide is the second-leading cause of adolescent deaths (CDC).

Adults have reported to be struggling with mental health as well. According to the CDC, 40% of adults surveyed had reported on struggling with mental health or substance abuse in late June.

Elionore McCance Katz, the assistant secretary of health and human services for mental health and substance use, is the highest-up psychiatrist in our federal government. She is not, however, part of Trump’s coronavirus response task team. Not many people have heard of her. When 1 in 4 people ages 18-24 are seriously considering suicide (NPR), a mental health government advocate is imperative in a public health crisis.

It’s not just the U.S. who doesn’t have a vocal psychiatrist in government; there is no specific person in the world that anyone can name for mental health relating to the Coronavirus. The world has overlooked such a key part of our health. We should be doing better. We should be focusing on all aspects of health, not just on the physical aspect, as important as it is. Regular people have been vocal about mental health, but not people in government. Those in charge of American health did not think it was important to include a mental health advisor to the Covid-19 task force—and that’s where they made a mistake.