The Right to Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Open Access
- 19 October 2021
- journal article
- Published by Vilnius University Press in Psichologija
- Vol. 64, 38-52
- https://doi.org/10.15388/psichol.2021.39
Abstract
The relationship between mental health and human rights is integral and interdependent. There are clinical, social and economic reasons, as well as moral and legal obligations to advance mental health care as fundamental to human rights. Significant considerations for this matter are especially crucial when addressing the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. The aim of this research study was to analyse the responses to the ongoing pandemic, concerning the human rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities and the right to the mental health of the general population, in Lithuania. Methods included online surveys, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. This article presents the results as a complex picture containing lived experiences of mental health difficulties of the general population, barriers to accessing the needed support and services, as well as analysis of violations of human rights. It also highlights the need for more research on the long-term consequences of the pandemic and lockdowns on the mental health of the population; also, on how human rights of persons with mental health conditions, and especially those with psychosocial disabilities, can be better ensured and protected in Lithuania.Keywords
This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit:
- Evidence for elevated psychiatric distress, poor sleep, and quality of life concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic among U.S. young adults with suspected and reported psychiatric diagnosesPsychiatry Research, 2020
- Traumatic stress in the age of COVID-19: A call to close critical gaps and adapt to new realities.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2020
- COVID-19 and mental health: A review of the existing literatureAsian Journal of Psychiatry, 2020
- Prevalence and predictors of PTSS during COVID-19 outbreak in China hardest-hit areas: Gender differences matterPsychiatry Research, 2020
- Social Capital and Sleep Quality in Individuals Who Self-Isolated for 14 Days During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in January 2020 in ChinaMedical Science Monitor, 2020
- The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable developmentThe Lancet, 2018
- The Deinstitutionalization of Lithuanian Mental Health Services in Light of the Evidence-based Practice and Principles of Global Mental HealthSocialinė teorija, empirija, politika ir praktika, 2017
- Toward a new definition of mental healthWorld Psychiatry, 2015