By Renee Willmon
Life as we know it has changed - especially for patients
Even if you haven’t experienced COVID-19 directly or know someone who has been infected, chances are that you have been feeling the effects of the pandemic in some way. The pandemic has impacted so many dimensions of life, especially our day to day rituals such as access to church or community groups, children’s school or daycare, the option to take a night off and enjoy dinner at your favourite local restaurant, or even just invite family and friends over for an evening together - our social and economic lives have all changed dramatically!
Months since the pandemic began, COVID-19 continues to consume our attention, and while in some ways it is starting to feel like a “new normal”, many of the changes everyone is having to adapt to make for a bumpy ride. While stories of the economic and political impacts of COVID-19 continue to flourish, there has been relatively little about the impact of the pandemic on individuals and families coping with health challenges unrelated to the COVID-19 virus itself. What may not be obvious to many is that the effects of the shutdown have caused a disproportionate impact on the access to regular care, or health routines of people who were already managing a pre-existing condition or new diagnosis. These already challenging realities have become even more complex and stressful with the new hurdles imposed by lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions.
How are others managing COVID-19?
Many of our public health institutions at all levels from the World Health Organization to local and regional mental health organizations have been releasing helpful tips on how to manage emotional health through the pandemic, but we wanted to learn more about how people are truly coping - especially people who might be trying to balance self-care for a pre-existing health condition, or who are wondering how to care for a loved one with a health concern while having to remain socially distant. The existence of these resources are in and of themselves evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on mental health, but we also found research that takes a deeper dive into how people are coping.
The Canadian Association for Mental Health (CAMH) conducted a survey every two weeks from early May to the end of June to assess several dimensions of mental health among Canadians, and they found that while levels of anxiety were reported more frequently early in the pandemic, there is still a high proportion of Canadians who are experiencing moderate to severe anxiety. Women seem to be experiencing more severe anxiety than men, and households with children are affected more than households without children, but the differences are small. Interestingly, in the age group of people between 18-39 years of age, anxiety levels have actually risen in the most recent survey.
Images from https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-19/covid-19-national-survey
How does Anxiety fit into the Patient Journey?
The results of the CAMH survey show how the mental health of the general population has been affected by COVID-19, however we wanted to understand better how patients have been impacted. We compared data from Health Storylines users from three months before the pandemic began, to the period from January - June 2020, which captures the period when COVID-19 first came into our awareness and then spread around the world.
When we looked at the most commonly reported moods tracked in the Daily Moods tool, we see that “Anxious” rose from the 6th most commonly reported mood to the 4th. Since Daily Moods is one of the most frequently used tools, this tells us that there was a substantial increase in the number of people reporting anxiety for it to rise in the rankings so quickly.
We also looked at the most commonly reported symptoms to see whether COVID-19 symptoms were being reported, and Anxiety has been described there as well - so much so that it has risen from the 8th most commonly reported symptom to the second. The fact that we see anxiety reported as both a mood and a symptom also shows us that it is an important dimension of mental health, because it affects us emotionally and physically.
How can you navigate the COVID-19 Pandemic?
So what does this data tell us about how you can cope more effectively as the pandemic continues? Unfortunately we can expect that restrictions, face masks, physical distance and anxiety will be with us for the foreseeable future until an effective vaccine and treatment is developed. This means that developing resilient coping strategies that take into account any pre-existing or even new health conditions will be critical to maintaining any sense of normalcy.
If you are a user of Health Storylines, you can use tools in the Tool Library to support this time of uncertainty, whether it’s tracking your moods and symptoms on a regular basis so that you can talk about how you’re feeling with friends, family and your care team, to using Routine Builder to set up reinforcement for healthy habits you want to maintain. One tool that is having a positive impact is Healthy Doses - where you can view inspiring messages to take your mind off what can be a scary news cycle. There are also tools to support healthy nutrition choices and daily activities, in addition to a COVID-19 symptom tracker if you’re worried about exposure or whether you are experiencing signs of COVID-19.
By using Health Storylines as a health companion to keep track of how you’re feeling and building strategies to support your health, you can also support the physicians on the front lines, and the researchers behind the scenes who are working towards vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, and also many other conditions. Data on how people manage their health in the real world (ie outside of the lab or a clinical trial) is surprisingly hard to come by, and that means that care that treats patients in ways that meet their emotional and behavioural needs are often lacking since physicians focus on the biological data associated with health. As more and more research shows the importance of patients’ preferences, experiences and emotions in realizing better health, researchers and physicians want to know more about the holistic experience of healthcare. Health Storylines can be a tool to help you share that value with them in a way that can lead to improved treatments and procedures that will help all patients - and especially during such tough times as the COVID-19 pandemic, who wouldn’t want that!
Sources and images from
https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-19/covid-19-national-survey