The COVID pandemic has prompted one out of every 20 Israelis to seek mental health assistance, according to the results of a survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics published this week.
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A total of 4.9% of the country's Jewish population has sought help due to the stress of the pandemic. More women (4.9%) than men (4.1%) reached out for help.
Most of the people who responded (38%) turned to counseling services offered by the Health Ministry or by the country's healthcare providers. Another third sought private therapists, and 18.7% reached out to hotlines operated by various organizations. Half of the respondents said they felt that they received help that improved their emotional state.
Other findings from the CBS survey indicate that the longer the COVID crisis lasts, the harder people find it to cope. Nearly one-third (30%) of respondents said their mental state was worse than it was prior to the onset of the COVID crisis, compared to a similar surveys from July 2020, when 26% of respondents said their mental state was worse than it was prior to COVID, and May 2020, when only 20% said their mental state had worsened.
Respondents cited high rates of depression (19%), anxiety (36.8%), and loneliness (21%). People do not appear to be acclimating to the difficulty of the crisis, possibly because of the instable nature of the drawn-out experience.
The numbers came as no surprise to the Israel Psychiatric Association.
"When 4.5% of the people reach out for treatment, it means an additional 500,000 citizens for the psychiatric system! For every person who tests positive for COVID, there is another person who is seeking treatment," says Dr. Zvi Fischel, chairman of the IPA.
"Anyone who thinks that everyone will receive service is wrong. Such a big number causes long delays for the start of treatment or long intervals between sessions. The government needs to immediately increase resources that will allow at least 30% more treatment hours in the public health system. The CBS statistics show us that distress has been consistent throughout the year of COVID. It's not a statistical error, it's a trend that must not be ignored," Fischel said.
Six months ago, the Health Ministry issued instructions to provide new patients with three free telephone therapy sessions via the service hotlines of Israel's healthcare providers.
Meanwhile, a study by Maccabi Healthcare Services' innovation institute KSM, in conjunction with the KI Institute – The Israeli Institute for Applied Research in Computational Health, found that diagnosed depression can significantly increase the chances of complications from COVID-19 in young patients. The researchers found that patients under age 60 who suffered from depression were an at-risk group that should be vaccinated.
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