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COVID19 And Mental Health

Gabrielle Lewis

North Central University

The COVID19 Pandemic has negatively impacted and changed the lives of many individuals all over the world. Since December 2019, the Coronavirus (COVID19) outbreak has affected the daily lives of everyone globally, especially those with mental health problems. Ivbijaro (2020), states “Governments have asked their citizens to take actions, some of which include making sacrifices that may result in dignity violations and moral injury, a term originating in the military to describe the psychological distress that results from actions, or the lack of them, which violate a person's moral or ethical code” (p. 62). This April of 2020, a call-in question and answer session was aimed for legal, clinical, administrative and ethical guidance on telehealth; providing an interactive platform for social workers to ask questions about the impact of COVID-19 on their practice; and linking social workers to legal, telehealth, clinical, and ethical services to support their practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. NASWs webinar has come up with key developments for Medicare telehealth options during COVID-19. In contrast to ethical mistakes, which are often unintentional, social workers sometimes face circumstances that require deliberate ethical decisions.

According to Baumes (2020) “In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, one potential benefit of telehealth, as opposed to in-person service, is the practitioner’s ability to continue providing services while adhering to the state and national stay-at-home orders“. Social workers still need to ensure that ethical and professional standards of care are met. In order to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and to ensure access to services such as teletherapy, licensed clinical social workers who participate in Medicare can be reimbursed for telehealth services under the guidelines given to date. Since early March 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued guidance expanding the use of telehealth during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Esterwood, E., & Saeed (2020) found that Identifying people in need of mental health care and determining the appropriate psychiatric services and therapy needed will be important (p. 91). During and after the pandemic, social workers' change to telehealth can be a better solution for both social workers as well as the patients. Social workers can simply hit a button to share the screen, and use Zoom to help children with homework for parents who may not understand the criteria. This increases engagement and frequency in when clients are being seen. Another example is having that extra time without commuting to have sessions. Social workers can do family sessions much easier because now they don’t have to be at the same home, or even in an office; just one click to get started. As the social worker is home, they can adjust their hours as they work remotely not needing “office hours.” Lastly, Telehealth cuts patients costs as they don't have to travel in cars or a bus to go see a social worker. This also reduced “no patient no show.” During a pandemic this results in less human contact while mental health is being addressed. Recent legislative initiatives have advocated for further telehealth advancements, especially with the rapid implementation of telehealth in the times of coronavirus disease 2019.