INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MENTAL HEALTH IN COVID-19
An e-health service to provide tele-mental health support in pandemic To fight against COVID-19, most of the governments are allocating a significant portion of their health budget for health safety equipment, COVID-19 testing machines, and kits, etc. while mental health issues due to COVID-19 are mostly ignored in almost every country. To control the pandemic, governments have imposed several restrictions on travel, public gathering, which makes social distancing almost mandatory. These restrictions worsen the situation in developing countries of Asia and Africa, where mental health professionals and services are scarce. This article will discuss an innovative e-health service ‘Mind Tale’ for providing mental health services while addressing the resource scarcity and social distancing issue in the pandemic. It will also describe the unique service delivery model of Mind Tale, which make its potentials role model for other developing countries to provide mental health support despite the existing digital divide. Nazia Akter, General Manager & Head of Business Solution, Synesis IT Ltd. Rupayan Chowdhury, Group CEO, Synesis IT Ltd. Tanjir Soron, Head of Mental Health, Synesis IT Ltd.
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ill date, COVID-19 has affected the lives of millions, and with time the death toll is increasing, so as the economic downturn. Though it seems like this pandemic is distressing the physical health of human beings, what we cannot neglect is rising of mental health issues due to COVID19. During epidemics, distressing experiences stimulate behavioural responses which can propel psychosocial distress, psychiatric disorders, stigma and social issues. According to a recent KFF poll, nearly half (45 per cent) of the adults in the United States stated that their mental health had been impacted due to worry and stress over the virus. Experience of the past pandemic situations of SARS and Ebola indicated that this pandemic is also going to have long-term implications on mental health.
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