​​​​​​​PAHO warns of “serious” deterioration of mental health in Latin America

Mental health problems in Latin America are on the rise, exacerbated in part by the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of coping with economic and social recovery in a region marked by inequalities, an official from the Pan American Health Organization said. (PAHO) this Friday

Latin America faced the greatest impact of the pandemic globally with more than 32% of fatalities. The pandemic at the same time “made visible” a regional problem that must be faced with “focused” public health policies and international cooperation, PAHO officials said in Washington when presenting “A new agenda for mental health in the Americas”.

The general director of PAHO, Jarbas Barbosa, said that the effects of the pandemic on mental health were exacerbated from the first stage of the health emergency, and that this has not decreased during the recovery process marked by social problems that has left the health crisis.

For hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans, the effects of the pandemic represented an emotional overload that acted as a trigger for an increase in mental health problems. “Unemployment, economic insecurity and mourning and loss” exacerbated the conditions, experts said.

Estimates from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) consider that the effect of the pandemic “has affected the population in a profound and multidimensional way” in the region.

“Depression and anxiety,” Barbosa explained, are conditions that prevail in the region due to studies by the body that in 2022 established the High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19.

Studies prior to the pandemic already dimensioned the “little attention” problem of suicides that have been increasing in the subcontinent inhabited by some 640 million people, he said.

“While on a global scale the suicide rate has decreased in the last two decades, in the Americas in this same period it has increased by 7%. Studies carried out in the region in 2018 already warned that in a 12-month period almost 20% of the population had experienced a mental health disorder (…) the crisis is the lack of sustained care”, said the director of PAHO.

Experts indicated that the problem of suicides among young people and women —in previous decades men predominated— would be related to “the lack of life expectancy.”

The lack of timely treatment and care is another part of the problem. In 2020, more than 80% of people with a serious mental illness, “including psychosis”, did not receive treatment, according to the regional body that is part of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Joint and focused work

Dr. Epsy Campbell Barr, president of the Commission, said that the study offers 10 recommendations for the region’s health authorities to address the problem that focuses on specific vulnerable sectors that should emphasize “affordability” to the treatments.

The implementation of the mental health issue in all public health policies is key to addressing the problem, which leads to increasing financing for health portfolios focused on this sector, Campbell Barr explained.

The experts also agreed that mental health issues cannot be seen as unrelated to the community, since it is a collective matter that must be faced from different creative, communication and tolerance angles in order to understand an issue that also entails early deaths in the region.

Barbosa pointed out that the challenge is enormous, since on average the countries of the region dedicate 3% of their budgets to attend to the health systems, and that in these the mental health issue lags behind.

In addition, “there is a chronic shortage of qualified personnel,” Barbosa said, but he announced that in his four-year term, which began in early 2023, he will put all his efforts to work on this vital issue for the general health of the region.

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