The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has long-term and far-reaching effects on mental health.
The mental health impact of the pandemic will be “long-term and far-reaching”, the said Thursday, as experts and leaders called for action on Covid-19 linked anxiety and stress.
“Everyone is affected in one way or another,” the WHO said in a statement at the start of a two-day meeting in Athens with health ministers from dozens of countries.
“The mental health impacts of the pandemic will be long-term and far-reaching,” the statement added.
The WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said mental health should be considered a fundamental human right, and stressed how the virus had deprived many people of opportunities.
According to him, anxieties around virus transmission, the psychological impact of lockdowns and self-isolation had contributed to a mental health crisis.
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“The pandemic has shaken the world,” he told the conference.
“More than four million lives lost globally, livelihoods ruined, families and communities forced apart, businesses bankrupted, and people deprived of opportunities.”
The WHO called for the strengthening of mental health services in general and the improvement of access to care of frontline workers and survivors using technology.
