Pandemic patients consuming resources for psychiatric emergencies

The continued COVID-19 pandemic is causing healthcare workers to quit or move to a place in which they can control their work schedule and receive higher pay while at the same time COVID-19 patients fill the emergency rooms causing people who have other life-threatening health issues to wait extraorally longer wait times. In states such as Florida and Texas, ambulances wait outside hospitals up to seven hours while nurses and doctors locate places to put the patients who usually require immediate oxygen and other life-saving drugs to battle COVID-19. On the other end, people who suffer from injuries that require immediate attention from doctors must wait or seek out another hospitals to treat their injuries or condition. While many of us are aware of this, many do not know about the suffering people who are dealing with serious psychiatric conditions either agitated by this pandemic or left untreated for a long period due to the pandemics societal pause on many psychological treatments and requirements in which many patients have become accustomed to over the last decade. The underlying issue of this is not mainly due to health workers leaving but rather how COVID-19 has taken priority above every thing else since it froze the world economies and continues to present obstacles which hinder the world from returning to normalcy.

While many people can turn to virtual doctors for answers and prescriptions, those who are in need of physical interaction between their therapist or psychologist lack this option, along with new developments of psychological crisis that can occur in an instant and usually cannot be understood until it is addressed by someone in the psychiatric field. The majority of these "instant psychological" cases mainly occur in adolescents who lack understanding why their behavior is radically off from the perceived normal and even in a normally functioning society it takes an entire undistracted amount of effort usually by those who surround the young individual to realize that it maybe a mental issue which needs to be addressed by a professional. According to the National Institute of Health,"It seems that much of what we have learned from past disasters and epidemics is holding true in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several surveys, including those collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), have shown substantial increases in self-reported behavioral health symptoms. According to one CDC report, which surveyed adults across the U.S. in late June of 2020, 31% of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, 13% reported having started or increased substance use, 26% reported stress-related symptoms, and 11% reported having serious thoughts of suicide in the past 30 days. These numbers are nearly double the rates we would have expected before the pandemic. As in prior studies, this survey showed that risk factors for reporting anxiety symptoms or suicidal ideation included food insufficiency, financial concerns, and loneliness."(www.nimh.nih.gov)

In Pennsylvania, we are not immune to this serious issue which is a lack of addressing the current mental health issues adolescents are facing, but like most parts of our suburban counties across the nation it is being ignored. The solution to this problem cannot even occur until Covid-19 is under control and perhaps once it is, people both young and old can finally seek out mental health providers again. Until then, those in this group have very limited options, since going to emergency rooms is something that is not available now. Perhaps another way to help adolescents deal with these uncertain times is by creating a better network online that is only focused to this exact problem and though it is not a remedy, it may just save those who are in serious need of help and prevent suicides and other detrimental desires that someone without guidance may pursue. Below, I listed a group of immediate help numbers for teenagers and young adults in the Delaware County, Pennsylvania area.

(https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2...) For Parents who maybe concerned and looking for answers

(https://www.dhs.pa.gov/Service...) Service centers

(he National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or call 911 immediately.)