mental health in pandemic

Introduction

In the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, schools have confronted unprecedented challenges as they moved to quickly shift classes to an online format, provide equitable access for all students, support teachers’ and students’ educational needs, and make plans amidst great uncertainty. The pandemic itself has caused much worry, stress, and grief. These stressors can cause mental health challenges for anyone and can cause acute symptoms to appear for people who may experience preexisting mental health challenges.

Universal screening to identify students in need

An established method to identify students who may have difficulties with anxiety or depression is through systematic screening of the school population. For elementary school students, screening involves teachers and students completing brief questionnaires regarding students’ emotions and classroom behaviors. At the middle and high school levels, screening primarily relies on student questionnaires regarding the frequency or severity of any emotional concerns.

Teachers also may be asked to nominate students who appear to be excessively anxious or frequently sad. Students can complete questionnaires using paper-and-pencil surveys or, more appropriately for online instruction phases, through online, secure questionnaires. School mental health professionals (e.g., counselors, school psychologists) use scores on these questionnaires to identify students who appear at risk for anxiety or depression difficulties.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 15 to 20% of students could be expected to be identified as needing support through screening this percentage will almost certainly be higher given the potential emotional fallout of the pandemic.

Different roles of school professionals

School-based mental health professionals can provide direct support to students who are potentially at risk for emotional issues by helping to implement systematic screenings. While each school-based helping profession’s ultimate goal is to facilitate the optimal development of each child, there is a differentiation in roles that each specialist takes.

For instance, within the screening process teachers are the professionals who are the most knowledgeable about students’ general behaviors because they have the most contact with students daily. As a result, observant teachers may be able to detect subtle changes in children’s daily mood, habits, and school-based practices.

Screening process case study

Chris and John makes every effort to reach out to his students with recent disruptions in face-to-face school instruction. Most students respond to check-ins and complete academic work at an expected level, but Sarah has not responded to communication and frequently fails to complete assigned work.

 Chris and John first reaches out to other teachers who work with Sarah and determines through this network that Sarah shows similar behavior with other teachers. The team confirms that technology is not a barrier and fails to find any evidence of environmental concerns that would prevent her from connecting. Concerned about potential mental health distress, Chris and John contacts the school psychologist to inquire about screening. Chris and John ’s school was already planning on administering a universal screening tool for all students the following week.

As a result of this screening, the school psychologist found that Sarah needed some additional supports and connected her with the appropriate school and community mental health resources. If results of the screening had not indicated specific mental health concerns, a school-based team would probe further to identify other factors that are preventing Sarah from finding success.

Screening is one part of the prevention and support process. What happens after

Once students are identified as being at-risk for emotional difficulties, it is important for the school to have a plan of action to connect youth to effective support services. Ideally, this would involve in-school individual or group counseling as part of a multi-tiered system of support (Eagle et al., 2015). Alternatively, students could be referred to community agencies that treat youth with mental health disorders. Some school districts contract with community agencies to provide mental health support in the school setting.

Given the many mental health challenges that students may experience during and after the pandemic, it is important for educators to (a) assist in identifying at-risk students through systematic screening; (b) advocate for universal screening of the school population during and following online learning phases; and (c) increase awareness of the importance of mental health screening with their teacher colleagues as well as school administrators and parents.

How To Keep Mental Health Issues Like Anxiety, Panic At Bay With Yoga

Yoga is known to change the underline biology of the disease. For instance, in patients with depression, there are high levels of cortisol and low levels of brain repairing chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor. When you treat such patients with yoga, their cortisol level drops, levels of brain repairing chemical increases and depression gets better

When asked about the kind of exercises one should begin with to deal with the anxiety, panic, and stress that has become more common during Coronavirus pandemic, Dr Sabharwal suggests three poses – Balasana (Child’s pose) which stimulates the nervous system and re-energise our bodies; Viparita Karani (legs up the wall pose) for improved blood circulation and relaxing mind; Shavasana (corpse pose) for meditation and relaxing the body.

Conclusion

 Our findings support the notion that the current COVID-19 pandemic is making a significant negative impact on mental health of college students. College students who exhibit greater academic and life difficulties may be particularly vulnerable to higher mental health distress.