The ongoing lockdown is exacerbating the already dire mental health situation around the world especially among youths. On the 14th of May 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a worrying report showing the devastating impact of COVID-19 on the mental wellbeing of the people all over the world: anxiety, irritability, insomnia are just a few of the mildest symptoms. Titled COVID-19 and the Need for Action on Mental Health, the paper calls for a “whole of society” approach to mental health in order to “promote, protect and care for mental health” within the national health system, ensuring emergency mental health care services are provided during the pandemic, and advocates for a recovery from COVID-19 that can build mental health care services for the future. With lack of proper care and support, individuals already suffering from mental health conditions are having an even harder time in what is not just a physical lockdown but also, with lack of support, is turning into a mental siege. It is an emergency everywhere from the most developed nations to the least developed ones. Even a country like Finland that weathered the crisis with a limited number of deaths and whose effective and generous welfare system is often praised, experienced an almost 15% spike in suicide deaths during the lockdown. The data highlights a broader trend of mental health distress especially among youths in Europe, and those from more vulnerable backgrounds were impacted the most as confirmed by the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) released by
from Setopati Nepal's Online Newspaper