Reflections, Questions and Possibilities for Action on Mental Health Care After the Pandemic

Enough time has passed since the moments of greatest confusion during the times of the pandemic and it is important that we can stop to think, feel and reflect on everything that has been experienced socially and individually in this time; to be able to process the lived experience, to know what has damaged the mental health of children, adolescents, young people, adults and the elderly, as well as to recognize the positive effects and convert what has been lived into resilient learning. It is good to stop at this moment when the overload of information is not so intense and for this reason it can allow us to have a greater perspective on what happened. This reflection is also important to question the political and social organization models in a constructive way and see what values have sustained many life changes with the aim of being able to design specific aid plans for people who need them. Also to recover a holistic conception of health, which cannot be exclusively in the hands of the medical profession, but rather requires the integral mobilization that embarks us on a healthy lifestyle that includes the four dimensions of human well-being: physical, psychological, social and spiritual. They are probably influencing to a great extent the worsening of mental health that is currently observed: the effects of the current socioeconomic situation, the maintenance of a state of permanent alertness and fear that has altered our physical and emotional selfregulation systems, the experience of blame as a «control» measure, especially in children, adolescents and young people, the loneliness in which many people have experienced important events in their lives, from bereavements to births, the pain of sectors of the population isolated in hospitals, residences, centers mental health or chronically ill, the lack of connection with nature and in a particularly relevant way the lack or deterioration of human connection and closeness.

The fear of interpersonal relationships and human closeness can produce, especially in vulnerable people, a devastating «fear of others» and even «fear of oneself», because they feel that they can become the source of illness and death for close beings. This fear increases in people who manifest paranoid thoughts (“others are dangerous”), in people with high degrees of unhealthy guilt (“I am the cause of all harm”) and in vulnerable and unjustifiably vulnerable children, young people and adolescents. blamed, and who need perhaps more than other stages of the life of «other» in the meaning and structuring of their person. For this reason, it is especially important to remind ourselves that fear does not make people more responsible and careful, it only makes them more frightened and that they react more conditioned by fear than by love.

In addition, guided performances instilling fear, rather than loving care, generate a disturbing feeling of insecurity. This feeling is already painful in itself and, furthermore, it affects the modulation of the complex structures of the human brain that is, by its very nature, in constant interaction with the social world. In addition, it is known that insecurity, fear and guilt hinder all biological and psychological processes towards healing, especially if one takes into account that these disruptive processes affect vulnerable people more harshly, either because of their psychological state, because of their age, because they are in critical evolutionary stages of development or because they experience moments of intense loneliness.

And while isolation and personal distance are universally and rigidly imposed, it is necessary to remember that the most important engine of evolution and survival is precisely cooperation. Therefore, when non-collaborative and individualistic behaviors are encouraged, double damage is being done to people, on the one hand, the one that generates their own behavior and, on the other, the one that is generated in each person when we go against our own will. nature. These conflicts have caused many people to manifest a clear conflict between the physical and mental need for human contact and the fear of people. These internal conflicts that many people live with can cause devastating damage in the short and long term. Hence, it is necessary to offer safe alternatives to recover the social connection in conditions of security and trust. Taking into account the individual and social repercussions and consequences of all that has been stated so far, a series of measures are proposed that can favor meeting the needs of people, assuming that one of the priority needs is protection and care.

Proposals to carry out in the social sphere

It is necessary to learn to set limits and understand the fear that floods society, learn to care for and express needs, and learn to relate safely to us and to others without damaging human connection in contexts of physical distance.

Proposals to carry out in the therapeutic field

A series of measures within the therapeutic field are proposed below, in which a special emphasis will be placed on the relational and the group as a central element in the recovery of emotional balance.
i. Offer Group Psychotherapy, which facilitates the elaboration of thoughts, feelings and emotions that need to be healed.
ii. Offering relationship spaces in which it is possible to elaborate all these situations and, of course, those that are important for each specific group, can even favor the conversion of all these experiences into concrete and resilient learning that allows raising awareness of valuable learning of this whole situation.

Central themes to work on in these therapies and meetings would be: Learning to assume the uncertainty of reality. Grow in Trust. Work the fear of death. Find meaning in lived experiences. Live, becoming aware that we continue to live and choosing how we want to live. Exercise in understanding someone and offer support and learn to express and listen with empathy. In short, places where we can learn to grow as people and help us strengthen our relational, inner and spiritual world.