PAGE 11 October 2020 PAGE 13 October 2020 PAGE 18 October 2020
By
Tempest
Wright,
Staff
Writer
10.7% of adults reported thoughts of
suicide in the past 30 days."
As economic, social, and racial issues
continue to rise along with the
pandemic's death toll, people with
SUD will face difficulty safely
recovering. Opioid users face a
particularly daunting set of
challenges due to greater
marginalization, trouble accessing
specific health care, imposed
restrictions on drugs, closure of
deaddiction centers, increased risk of
life-threatening withdrawal, and
usage of illicit opiates. Fear of
overdosage looms over potential
solutions to mitigate these obstacles,
especially as addicts may
misinterpret COVID-19 symptoms as
signs of withdrawal and self-
administer, possibly fatally.
Recovery from substance abuse is a
long-lasting, multiple-step process.
Accessing facilities providing support
and intervention has proven difficult
during COVID-19. Even after
recovery, addicts may discover newly
available substitutes to replace or
join other vices, administering the
same relief and thus creating a new addiction in a vicious
cycle. Stigmas surrounding people with SUD can also
prevent them from seeking or receiving help, especially if
isolated or quarantined alone or in a violent household.
Despite the challenges and tragedies caused by the
pandemic, it also brought some positive changes. Mental
health providers have increased telehealth services,
allowing patients to continue treatment from a safe
distance. Many companies also went virtual and allowed
employees to work from home during shutdowns, including
some
who announced they will keep the telework option
open through at least the end of the year. While these are
both landmark improvements, especially for people with
disabilities who have been addressing accommodations like
these for years, they pale in comparison to the road ahead.
Telehealth options may help some mental health patients,
but providers are overwhelmed by the increase in those
seeking help during COVID-19 and are struggling to keep
up. Domestic violence shelters are also overflowing and
running low on resources as victims of abusive households
seek safety.
The CDC suggests that future studies look for drivers of
negative impacts on mental and behavioral health
throughout the pandemic and whether factors such as
social isolation, absence of school structure,
unemployment and other financial worries, and various
forms of violence serve as additional stressors. They
further recommend community-driven intervention and
prevention efforts to address stress from experiencing
racial discrimination, promoting social justice, and
supporting people at risk for suicide. Amidst the worldwide
conversation surrounding police brutality, advocates are
calling to defund and abolish police and the prison system
and to reallocate those funds into community alternatives
for support. Funds currently allocated for police could
instead be invested into homeless and domestic violence
shelters, mental health and SUD services, education to
promote racial equality and destigmatize substance use,
and more.
Several countries issued various relief packages to their
citizens to financially assist with physical and mental health
concerns and unemployment. While the U.S. falls among
the middle of the pack in terms of relief value, failure to
control the virus early on has resulted in continuous
financial and emotional turmoil for many Americans that
has yet to be relieved. Coronavirus deaths in the country
continue to stack up while representatives in the Senate
use proposed pandemic relief bills as petty pawns for their
respective party's political agenda prior to the upcoming
November election. The U.S. government's lack of
leadership shown by intentionally downplaying a virus and
failing to control it or provide sufficient aid to its people
proves astounding cowardice on their part and sets an
expectation for what Americans must demand in the
future.
For the deadly cycle of worsened mental health, increased
suicidal ideation, and increased substance use to cease,
government and legislative bodies must do their part to
protect every citizen, especially those disproportionately at
risk. An efficient and science-driven plan to control and
fight COVID-19 must be America's priority alongside a
continued demand for racial justice and accessibility to
mental health, harm-reduction, and deaddiction services.
As stated in COVID-19 and Addiction, "If a nation has to
recover from this disastrous pandemic, the special need for
the marginalized strata of the society must be addressed
with the utmost care."
