By Susmita Shah

Kathmandu – Psychiatric hospitals are seeing a direful situation of increasing mental health issues in global context stated the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH).

And consequences like this have also been seen in the psychiatric hospitals and related organizations in Nepal, affirmed the Center for Mental Health and Counseling (CMC) Nepal.

A massive rise in appointments for mental health issues has been recorded after the second phase of lockdown in CMC-Nepal and counseling services are being provided to them virtually, said Himal Gaire a spokesperson from CMC Nepal.

Considering the provided services 46 % (16,147) of male and 54 % female (18,334) were benefitted from the services offered by CMC-Nepal. The services constituted Psychological Counseling Services in Kathmandu and other districts of Nepal, Psychological First Aid (PFA) in quarantine or isolation wards and awareness raising programs.

From the above mentioned data, a total of 170 people including 89 males and 81 females were appointed for psychiatric services and about 5542 individuals received counseling from CMC-Nepal in between the period of March 23 to August 28, 2020 showed the data provided by CMC-Nepal.

The major mental health issues reported in CMC-Nepal during this period were anxiety, fear, relapse of Depression, Gender-based Violence (GBV), psychosis, marital issues, insomnia, restlessness, stress due to financial loss, etc.

Most common complaints by people were difficulty in sleep and restlessness. On explorations, they were stressed and had features of generalized anxiety. Females outnumbered males in such complaints.

Second problem was symptom of depression. Mostly these cases had depression in the past and were better with treatment, after covid-19 they had relapse of depression. In this period 3 new cases of depression was noted and one was referred by clinical psychologist.

Many patients of depression and anxiety who were being treated and counseled by Himal Gaire in the past in CMC-N clinic or other hospitals and were otherwise doing well had relapse along with sadness, sleeplessness, fear of losing family members, not being able to work, etc. during Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of these patients might have reached more than hundred during these 6 months. But he assured us by saying that he can solve these problems by prescribing some medicines and doing counseling as they were supposed to be his clients.

Along with the other mental health issues, symptoms of psychosis were also observed in 6 cases including 4 males and 2 females. Two of them were from Dadeldhura, one from Jhapa, one from Bara, and 2 females from Kathmandu and Bhaktapur districts of Nepal. Medicines were advised and the patients in Kathmandu were referred to hospital in Patan. Out of these 3 were relapsed cases, and 3 new cases.

Cases of many other mental health issues were seen as well. For examples, one case of mental illness in a woman due to marital conflicts and two cases of stress and sleep problems because of financial loss was addressed in CMC-N by counseling.

Stress, anxiety and sleep issues were also noted in elderly people, with complaint of not being able to go out for morning walk, loneliness, boredom and fear of Covid-19 infection. One reason behind these problems may be the information that elderly people are more prone to Covid-19. They needed counseling and some tranquilizers for sleep stated Himal Gaire.

During this pandemic situation and lockdown, CMC-Nepal team from central and field level are providing Psychological First Aid (PFA) in isolation or quarantine as well as counseling service by both face-to-face and virtual method to people who are in need.

Technical experts of CMC-Nepal have been continuing in participating in talk-shows and interviews conducted by televisions & FM radio stations to provide appropriate information on maintaining mental health and psychosocial wellbeing during COVID-19 situation amidst the prevailing lock-down.

Experts have also been sharing different coping mechanisms to ease the stresses during this difficult situation based on their knowledge and skills via FM radio stations. Moreover, in joint collaboration of CMC-Nepal with Community Information Network (CIN) & Ujjyalo Network, CMC-Nepal is airing PSA on COVID-19 and mental health through their radio networks which is reachable to 500+ FM radios throughout Nepal.

The Centre for Mental Health and Counseling –Nepal (CMC-Nepal) is a non-governmental organization which aims to work through other organizations (governmental, NGOs/INGOs and institutions) to promote awareness and good quality mental health care by capacity building and support.